Love Will Keep Us Alive
by esmtz
Summary: Scorpions. Ellis is searching for the guy who saved his life when he was only six years old. Problem is he doesn't remember at all what the person looked like except for a tattoo. Possible death. pairing: FrancisxEllis Mentioned: NickxEllis NickxRochelle
1. The Dream

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

Ellis was once again having the same nightmare ever since he was six years old. He was in a burning building and he had lost sight of where his parents and his friend, Keith were at. He was huddled in a corner shaking and crying as debris fell around him. He watched wide eyed as the last of the few people that were in the building quickly got out not noticing the frightened little boy. Ellis hadn't noticed when debris almost fell on top of him when someone pulled him away just in time and picked him up.

"Are you alright, kid?" the stranger asked.

Ellis slowly nodded tears falling down his face as he clung to the person for dear life. The person looked like he was already in his late teens and started searching for a way out holding Ellis close to him in his arms.

"Don't worry I'm going to get you out of here…"

Ellis could barely see through the smoke that was everywhere around him, but he managed to see that on the person's right arm was a tattoo. He never saw anything like it before and immediately was interested in what it was.

"Hang on!" the person yelled and started running.

Ellis screamed as the rest of the building started falling down on top of them. Ellis immediately woke up gasping and sweating a little. He looked around and saw that he was back in the safe room with Nick, Rochelle, and Coach who were in the same room as him since the other room next to theirs was already occupied with other survivors that they had just met. Ellis let out a sigh of relief when he saw that he hadn't woken the others up and quietly got up and headed towards the door to the living room where someone last night had been keeping watch on the safe room door. Ellis made a face when he saw that Rochelle was snuggling up against Nick and reluctantly quietly closed the door behind him.

"About time someone else got up" the man with the tattoos on both his arms said making Ellis slightly jump.

"I'm surprised to see that yer not sleepin. Yer Francis right?" Ellis asked.

Francis smiled at him and nodded.

"I'm surprised you remember my name, kid." Francis said and stood up from where he was sitting and shrugged, "eh I couldn't sleep so I stood watch for the entire night."

Ellis blinked and looked at him.

"Well, you probably forgot mah name, it's…"

"Ellis, yeah I remember there's no need for you to remind me kid" Francis grinned as he saw Ellis turn slightly pink and nodded wondering why he was treating him better then how Nick ever treated him.

"Well, uh, ok then…" Ellis rubbed the back of his neck and watched as Francis headed to the kitchen.

"Kid, could you wake up the others already? It's about time we moved on out of here and I managed to find something edible for us to eat, but there's not a lot of it for everyone so we're going to have to share. I hate not having enough food." Francis said putting a couple of muffins on the table and started separating them into tiny portions and then brought out a couple of water bottles from the fridge.

Ellis made a face and walked up to Francis. Francis frowned and looked at him.

"Something wrong kid?" Francis asked.

"Can I just wake up yer group? I don't really want to go back in mah room to wake up mah teammates." Ellis looked upset.

Francis looked at him wondering what was going on and nodded.

"Yeah ok I guess." Francis replied and watched as Ellis went towards his teammates' room and opened the door.

"Y'all wake up! Breakfast time!" Ellis went in and started shaking Bill, Louis and Zoey.

"Alright, I'm up. I'm up!" Louis responded quickly sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Ugh why is this kid waking us up?" Bill asked sighing.

"Would you rather it be Francis, Bill?" Zoey asked slowly standing up just as Ellis was helping Louis to his feet.

"What's the difference? They're both loud." Bill complained standing up and started walking to the kitchen.

Zoey giggled and followed after him, Louis and Ellis. Francis went towards the other room and opened the door. He saw that Ellis's team was already starting to wake up and frowned even more confused as to why Ellis didn't want to wake them up.

"Goddamn, that kid is annoying!" Nick said agitated as he got up and helped Rochelle to her feet.

"Don't you dare start any shit about Ellis, Nick." Coach glared at him already knowing what was going to happen, "Every time you do, Ellis always takes what you say to heart. So why don't you just back off already?!"

Nick glared at him and then turned to look out the door. Francis turned to look behind him and saw that Ellis was listening to what they were saying.

"Because he's a stupid hick who gets on my fucking nerves and let's face it; he's nothing, but a liability on this team since he's almost always the one who gets us into trouble or we're having to make sure he's ok or whatever. Right now, Rochelle is the only one on this team that I give a damn about." Nick responded harshly.

Ellis looked like he was about to cry and Coach and Francis both growled at him. Francis closed the door shaking his head as Coach and Nick continued to argue. Francis looked at Ellis again.

"Let me guess, you like that asshole don't you and you're jealous of that girl right?" Francis asked trying to hide how hurt he felt.

Ellis obviously noticed because he had a confused look on his face. He was silent for a few seconds before finally responding.

"Yeah, was it really that obvious?" Ellis asked looking down at the ground sadly.

"Kind of, yeah. I hate assholes like that." Francis said grabbing Ellis's hand and leading him to the kitchen and gave him his piece of one of the muffins.

"Thanks, Francis." Ellis smiled at him and started eating.

"Is it always like that with your team…uh what's your name?" Zoey asked.

Ellis swallowed and looked at her.

"It's Ellis, Zoey." Francis told her.

"Oh, I'm sorry Ellis. I didn't mean to forget right away." Zoey said.

"Nah its cool don't worry about it." Ellis smiled at her.

"I feel sorry for you, Ellis. How do you guys manage to work together as a team to get out of tight spots?" Louis asked him as he and his team had their piece of a muffin.

"We manage. Hell we ain't that bad once we get out there and kick some zombie ass." Ellis smiled proudly.

"Still, you shouldn't be treated like that, Ellis." Francis told him looking at him with concern in his eyes.

Ellis was completely taken aback by how concerned Francis was even Bill, Louis and Zoey were looking at him in surprise.

"Francis, is there something you haven't told us?" Zoey asked looking at him and then at Ellis.

"Man, it seems like you know this kid, but we only just met him yesterday. What's up with that?" Louis asked.

Ellis looked at Francis wondering how he could possibly have already known him.

"Francis?" Ellis started to ask, but just then his team came out of the room and made their way to the table where the water bottles and muffins (what was left) were at.

"Nick, I believe you owe Ellis an apology." Rochelle said glaring at him.

Nick rolled his eyes and looked away.

"Nick." Coach growled dangerously.

"Alright, alright, fine. Ellis I'm…"

"Don't Nick, just don't. I know you hate me so how about you just leave me alone alright?" Ellis told him still feeling hurt, "I've had just about enough of yer insults."

Nick, Coach and Rochelle looked at him completely surprised while Zoey, Louis and Bill smiled at him.

"Well I'll be there's a man somewhere in that boy." Bill grinned.

"That's telling him off!" Louis said.

Zoey stood there smiling at Ellis and Francis couldn't wipe away the grin that was forming on his face.

Author's note: Ok here's my next story which this time will end up with FrancisxEllis. There will be mentions of NickxEllis and NickxRochelle (can't believe I'm doing it since it disgusts me a lot) and at the end of the story someone will probably die (kind of like the passing, but different obviously) anyway to all those who like or are at least kind of into this couple I hope you enjoy the story. Please leave me reviews to tell me what you think. Anyway I just wrote this late at night and it's almost 2:45 in the morning so I'm posting this right away and then going to bed. By the way the title is a song that the scorpions made if anyone's ever heard of it it's pretty good anyway I'll update again sometime this week I promise hopefully.


	2. The Plan

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

Just as everyone finished eating the pieces of the few muffins that they had they all started making their way to the exit of the safe house having already got ready the night before.

"Ok, does everyone know the plan?" Rochelle asked looking at everyone.

Zoey nodded looking extremely worried.

"Yeah, but its too bad we don't have any more supplies since all we have right now is four health packs and only two maybe three pain pills." Zoey replied.

"Including one adrenaline." Coach pointed out as he already picked it up and put it in his pocket.

"We're going to have to look out for each other and hope to god we find some more supplies out there." Louis added.

"Well we're separating into groups then since there are four water bottles and health packs." Rochelle told them, "Two people will each share a water bottle and a health pack. We're still staying as a group, only one person will be able to help the other person if they're in trouble and if the situation gets worse all of us will still be there."

"Good idea, Rochelle. At least this way we won't have to worry about everyone else. Not until it's absolutely necessary anyway." Nick said.

Ellis frowned and looked at Nick.

"Well maybe that's yer way, Nick, but I ain't not going to help out a fellow teammate if they're in trouble even if it's you." Ellis told him glaring at him.

Nick scowled and glared back at him.

"What the fuck is your problem, you stupid hick?!"

"Hey I'm not the one who hates the other person, Nick. That's obviously you and I'm just gettin sick and tired already of you acting like yer better then me" Ellis growled at him completely surprising himself that he was actually for once standing up for himself.

Francis felt himself grinning even more then before and put a hand on Ellis's right shoulder and gently squeezed it. Rochelle stood dumbstruck and Coach was positively beaming at Ellis and then laughed.

"Boy, I didn't know you had it in you to tell Nick off like that." Coach said.

"Well, what can you expect? He was bound to grow up eventually." Francis said making everyone look at him including Ellis who had forgot about what Francis said earlier, but immediately started to ask him again.

"Francis, what are you talking about?" Ellis asked.

"Hey, uh shouldn't we be making our way to the next safe house right about now?" Francis asked quickly changing the subject as he went to unlock the door and stepped outside.

Nick raised an eyebrow looking at Ellis and then to Francis who had just walked out the door.

"Well, that was weird…" Zoey said following after him.

"Yeah tell me about it" Bill replied letting out a puff of smoke from his cigarette and followed behind her.

Louis walked up to Ellis and looked at him.

"Do you remember Francis at all, um Ellis?" Louis asked.

Ellis shook his head.

"Nah which is the strangest thing I have no idea why he's acting like…"

"Like he knows you?" Louis finished for him.

Ellis nodded.

"Which is why I'm going to be sharing the water bottle and health pick with him. I still want to know why he's acting the way he's acting towards me." Ellis admitted making his team look at him in surprise (Nick with a look of disgust on his face).

Louis frowned.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Like he cares about me…he treats me better then he ever did" Ellis said pointing at Nick who just rolled his eyes.

"Whatever." Nick mumbled and headed out the door.

"Good luck with that. If I know Francis, he'll probably never tell you the reason why he's like that with you." Louis told him and followed after Nick.

Ellis turned his attention to Rochelle and Coach.

"Sorry y'all if you wanted me to be with one of you guys." Ellis said mostly looking at Coach.

Coach grinned.

"Well now don't you worry about a thing. Ro's obviously going to be with Nick and I figure I'll go with the old man. Uh what's his name again?" Coach asked looking at Rochelle.

She sighed and shook her head.

"Is it really that hard for you guys to forget people's names? It's Bill." Rochelle told him and saw that Ellis had muttered something under his breath, "What is it Ellis?" she asked.

"Hmm? Oh nuthin." Ellis replied and started walking towards the door, "I'm gunna catch up with Francis now."

"Ellis, we'll be watching your back too ok?" Rochelle told him smiling.

Ellis smiled slightly and nodded.

"Thanks, Ro."

All three of them left the safe house and Ellis immediately went up towards Francis. Francis already figured that he was going to be looking after Ellis so it didn't surprise him when he saw him walk up to him.

"So uh, Francis? I'm gunna be sharing with…" Ellis suddenly felt himself feeling embarrassed that he could barely manage to get that out and he rubbed his neck nervously.

"Yeah I already know, kid. Here you can have this." Francis said and pulled off the health pack that was on his back and gave it to Ellis.

Ellis blinked and felt himself turn pink.

"Y-You don't have ta do that, Francis. I'm good with just the pain pills. Really." Ellis replied.

"I already know that you need it more then I do considering how we 'met' yesterday. That tank nearly took you down and you were having trouble even with the normal zombies." Francis said and forced the pack into his hands.

"Um, it was a charger…and I was doing fine. It would have taken a lot more then that to take me down." Ellis said pushing it back to Francis.

Francis rolled his eyes and again pushed it back towards Ellis.

"Ellis, I seriously don't need it so just shut up and take it." Francis leaned in closer to Ellis.

Ellis turned bright red with Francis's face so close to his.

"Alright, I'll take it. As long as…" Ellis gulped trying to be able to say what he needed to say, "as long as you tell me why it seems like you already know me."

Francis sighed and shook his head backing away from Ellis.

"It's not important, kid. Besides you probably don't remember anyway." Francis mumbled the last part to himself.

"Whatever yer gunna have ta tell me sooner or later." Ellis told him strapping the pack to his back.

"Man you guys act like you're a couple or something."

Ellis and Francis turned and saw that the others had been watching them. Ellis turned bright red again and Francis was slightly pink. The girls were giggling.

"So cute! Francis I didn't know you had a soft spot for him." Zoey said.

"Oh yeah he'll definitely be taking care of Ellis alright." Rochelle smiled.

"Aw, Francis why couldn't you and I have a relationship like that?" Louis teased.

"Louis, shut the fuck up!" Francis said now turning completely red.

Coach was laughing again and Bill and Nick both looked annoyed, but for some reason Nick looked a little more like he was jealous despite the fact that he was holding Rochelle's hand. Rochelle noticed and raised an eyebrow as she saw that he was glaring directly at Francis.

"Ok, before we all get killed I suggest we get moving. Now." Nick said and started leading him and Rochelle away from the safe house.

Relieved that the topic was finally dropped, Francis started following behind them until Ellis stopped him.

"What now, kid?" Francis asked looking at him.

"Well if you don't want the health pack, take the pills ok?" Ellis said holding them out to him, "We need to work as a team here so you need something in case you get attacked."

Francis didn't say anything for a few seconds before finally taking the pills and smiled at him.

"Thanks, Ellis."

Once Francis turned away from him, Ellis let out the smile he was trying so hard to hold back as he followed him.

"Whatever you guys do, don't let your guard down, that means mostly you and the guy with the tattoos, Ellis." Coach said from behind them.

"For the love of…" Francis blushed trying hard to not turn around and accidentally tell him something that he didn't want anyone to know.

"It's Francis, Coach and why do you keep thinking that I'm gunna let mah guard down?" Ellis asked.

"Because for one you're always the one to get hit, Ellis which for some reason the zombies really seem to like you and two…aw hell you already know the second reason." Coach grinned.

"From what it looks like kid, if anything happens to you, you're definitely going to bring down Francis as well." Bill sighed, "And it's not just because you have the health pack as we all already know."

Ellis was alarmed and looked at Francis worried. Francis growled and turned to look at Bill.

"Don't go scaring the kid, Bill. We need him on his guard not worrying about what might happen if he goes down." Francis said.

"Francis, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you almost get yourself killed for him." Bill looked at him.

Francis rolled his eyes.

"Yeah like I haven't done that before."

Everyone stared at him including Ellis who was staring at him wide eyed.

Francis sighed.

'Aw fuck.'

Just as Ellis was about to say something the sound of a horde of zombies was heard heading their way.

'Oh thank god!' Francis thought relieved that there was something to distract the others especially Ellis from what he had just said despite the fact that they were in a huge city and every time a zombie horde showed up it meant that it was very likely for them to get lost especially if a tank or some other special infected showed up.

"Stay together y'all!" Coach yelled out as the zombies quickly closed in on them.

Author's note: When I first got the L4D 2 game I thought that the charger was a tank, but as soon as I learned that it was a charger and not a tank which was right away I never mistook it for a tank again. Anyway if you guys didn't know the passing for L4D 2 is supposed to come out sometime this week because of the delay, damn, but oh well I can't wait to play it. Right now I'm kinda getting pissed off with the Nick bot in the game because recently I've been mostly saved and healed by Rochelle or Coach (Nick hardly heals me anymore) and when I'm Rochelle it's usually Nick or Coach. Has anyone noticed or is it just me when I play as Nick, Ellis bot is almost reluctant to heal Nick? Anyway I'm starting to get used to Rochelle and Coach so I'm now actually letting them heal me and I'm healing them back and saving them so it's a start to dealing with them I guess. I miss when Nick used to almost always heal me, but I guess he got tired of always looking after me (I play as Ellis) since I always end up in some sort of trouble.


	3. Low On Supplies

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

The zombies immediately had surrounded all of the survivors making it very hard for any of them to see any of the smaller special infected like the jockey of the hunter. Heads and limbs were thrown everywhere as each survivor tried to carefully look around for any sign of them.

"Uh, guys? I think I see a Spitter!" Rochelle yelled out blood splattering all over her shirt and some almost in her eyes as she shot and pushed back some of the zombies away from her.

"A what?" Zoey asked looking around for it.

"It's over there!" Rochelle pointed out just as it spit its goo at them.

"Get out of the goo!" Nick yelled and tried backing away from it only to feel zombies blocking his way.

Everyone was already taking a lot of damage from the goo and the normal zombies and things only got worse the moment a smoker showed up above a warehouse and it grabbed a hold of the nearest survivor which just happened to be Louis.

"Help!" Louis yelled out as he was dragged and the zombies immediately were on him.

"Shit, kid help me kill all of these zombies next to us so we can get into that warehouse!" Francis said to Ellis nodding to the building that the smoker was on top of.

Zoey immediately shot it down and it dropped Louis who was now down along with Nick, Bill, and Coach.

"I don't think we got time for that, man. Everyone's dropping like flies!" Ellis said to Francis trying to push the zombies away from Nick, Coach and Bill who were using their pistols to help kill the zombies that were trying hard to kill them.

"Someone please tell me you got a pipe bomb or at least a molotov." Francis said.

"Hurry up and use it, Francis!" Bill said reaching into his pocket on his jacket and pulled it out and handed it to Francis.

Francis immediately tossed it away from them and all the zombies went chasing after it. Zoey, Rochelle, Ellis, and Francis quickly went to help the others up.

"The pipe bomb won't keep them distracted for long and it's not like it's going to kill all of them so we better hurry and make a run for it." Zoey said helping Louis to his feet.

"Thanks, Zoey." Louis said.

"No problem."

Rochelle quickly helped up Nick just as Ellis and Francis started helping up Bill and Coach and as soon as they were on their feet they all immediately went towards the building. Francis quickly closed the door and locked it just as the zombies started running at them again. They started pounding on the door and Francis started barring the door shut with whatever couches, chairs, or shelves he could find. He sighed with relief and slowly feel to the ground, his back against the stuff he used to block the door, as he heard the sound of something laughing outside as well as the growl of a hunter. Everyone was already sitting down on the floor all out of breath.

"That was way too close." Nick sighed and watched as Rochelle started patching him up, "Rochelle, maybe you should save that for later until we can find some more health packs. I'll be ok for now with the pain pills."

Rochelle frowned looking at him.

"You're bleeding all over the place, Nick. I'm not as bad as you are so you're taking the health pack and I'll use the pain pills so stay still or I'm going to mess this up." Rochelle told him.

Ellis looked over at both of them and immediately felt himself get jealous. He sighed and looked away.

"Hey, kid. You doing alright?" Francis asked.

Ellis walked over toward him and sat down next to him shaking his head and watched as Coach took his adrenaline and helped Bill take care of his wounds. Zoey was already patching up Louis as well.

"Nah, it's just I hate the fact that even though I hate it when Nick says and acts like he hates me I can't help but feel like I have to be the one to help him out all the time. I have to be ready when he goes down to pick him up and I have to be the one to heal him. If I don't I feel like he's not being looked after properly and well…it's just stupid ain't it considering we're in a zombie apocalypse an all?" Ellis chuckled slightly.

Francis looked at him and smiled slightly.

"No it isn't, Ellis, trust me I know exactly what you're going through." Francis said looking at him with longing in his eyes.

Ellis didn't notice as he continued talking with a small smile on his face.

"Every time I tried to heal him though, he'd always tell me that he didn't want a stupid hick like me to heal him and somehow that didn't bother me so much as the few times that I thought that he was going to die. I was able to heal him once before only because I was the only one left with a health pack and he obviously didn't like it, but man I was happy as hell to have helped him at least once."

Francis looked at him then at Nick who had just finished giving Rochelle a kiss on the cheek and she giggled.

"Francis, can I tell you something that I haven't told anyone before and promise you wont say anything about it to anyone?" Ellis asked looking at him.

Francis turned his attention back to Ellis and nodded.

"Sure, kid."

Ellis looked slightly nervous as he took a deep breath and looked at Francis straight in the eyes.

"I'm looking for someone."

"Oh you mean that Keith kid?" Francis asked.

Ellis raised an eyebrow.

"Well, him too, but…how did you know?"

"You mentioned it yesterday when we all met remember?" Francis asked completely lying.

Ellis frowned, but then shrugged figuring since he mentions Keith all the time he must have said that yesterday.

"Well, anyway…there's this guy I'm looking for. I reckon its been about seventeen years now…"

Francis felt himself start to feel nervous and tried very hard to hide the fact that he was starting to blush.

"He saved my life. I was in this burning building and I had no idea where my parents or my buddy, Keith was at. I don't remember a lot since I was only six except for the fire and the smoke and this one tattoo on the guy's right arm. I guess it was because of him that I decided that I would protect those close to me no matter what it takes even if it means that I have to get myself killed to make sure they're safe."

Francis looked at him completely horrified.

"What?" Ellis asked.

Francis shook his head.

"Ellis, it's cool that you're willing to do whatever it takes to keep your friends safe, but you shouldn't go and get yourself killed to do that." Francis told him sternly.

"Why? The guy that saved my life almost did that."

"Well, that's different." Francis said.

"How is it different, Francis?" Ellis asked, "And how would you know if it was different or not."

Francis was about to say because he was there, but instead he bit his tongue and said nothing.

"Yeah, I thought so." Ellis said.

"What are you two talking about over there?" Bill suddenly asked.

Ellis and Francis both turned to see that everyone had already finished taking care of their teammates and they were looking in their direction.

"Nuthin important." Ellis responded as he saw how Nick was staring directly at him and Francis and frowned when he saw how uncomfortable Rochelle looked.

"We were just talking about how good it was that we managed to find a few more supplies over here," Francis said holding up a couple of more pain pills and adrenalines he had managed to find while blocking the door with a shelf and some furniture.

Ellis looked at him not having noticed when Francis found them.

"That's great, Francis!" Zoey smiled.

"Hell yeah. Boy I need some of those pain pills over here." Coach said.

Francis got up and walked over to Coach and handed him a bottle.

"We can't stay here for long. We only just left the safe house and already we're in desperate need of health packs." Rochelle pointed out as she stood up, "Zoey, could you come help me look for some more health packs and pipe bombs or molotovs before we head on out again?" she asked.

Zoey nodded and stood up. Francis quickly gave them both pain pills and they started looking around. He held on to one of the adrenalines since he already knew that he was going to have to use it soon because he was still in pain from the zombie attack and gave the last one to Bill.

"Francis, maybe I should heal you." Ellis said noticing the way Francis was starting to limp.

"I'm good for now. Besides it's the last health pack so we're going to have to save it for now until we can get to the next safe house." Francis told him.

"If it's anywhere nearby." Louis said.

"What even makes you think that we'll make it in one piece?" Nick asked making Francis and Ellis look at him, "In case you hadn't noticed we just got out asses handed to us and it was with us having even more backup."

Francis frowned.

"They just got lucky that's all. They had us from all sides. It's not going to happen again." Francis said.

"What the hell makes you so sure about that? You can go ahead and underestimate them, but I'm not. Maybe you don't care what happens to some of us here, but I do." Nick growled.

"Look who's talking. Since when did you ever give a rat's ass about anyone here besides your fucking girlfriend?" Francis snarled, "As far as I know if you don't care about one person on your team I know for sure as hell you could care less about what happens with my team."

That shut Nick up. He just sat where he was at and glared angrily at Francis.

Bill sighed.

"We're not going to get anywhere by just sitting around and arguing with each other." Bill said as he slowly stood up.

"Bill's right. Let's just go get the girls and get on out of here before the infected find some way to get in here. This isn't a safe house so there will be a way for them to get in." Louis said and stood up.

"Let's get going, and Nick stop being such an asshole." Coach said also standing up and went over to Nick and helped him up.

"Whatever." Nick responded and quickly moved away from him.

Ellis was very worried especially under normal circumstances he would be the one hurting more then the others, but now already three of them already had to be healed and one more still needed to be healed and Ellis was doing better then most of the others which to him was not a good sign. Suddenly there was a scream and the sound of guns being fired was heard.

"Aw, hell was that a witch?" Ellis asked.

"Rochelle!" Nick yelled out and started trying to run towards the direction where they heard the noise.

"Well, kids things just got from bad to worse." Francis sighed as he, Ellis, Bill, Louis, and Coach ran to keep up with Nick.

Author's note: I'm having a hard time right now. I'm just waiting and itching to play the new l4d2 campaign, the passing I want to know who died in the original l4d group I'm gonna cry because I like all the characters. I used to not like Bill at all, but now I think he's totally awesome and I have a feeling that he's the one who's going to be gone T_T. anyway I hope my story is getting pretty interesting to those who have subscribed to the story alert. I already know how I want to end it or almost end it anyway so I actually know where I'm going with this story (for once) XD normally my stories I just write what comes into my head which is what I'll be doing until I get to the end bit where I do know what I want to do and trust me it'll more then likely be sad unless you're not affected by stories (feeling like crying because of something happening to a character). Hopefully by the time I update again the passing will be out already (please oh please let it be here! 0.o')


	4. Badly Hurt

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

The guys ran over to where they heard the witch's angry scream and saw, to Nick's horror, that Rochelle had been taken down and Zoey was trying to kill the witch. Everyone else started blasting the witch until she finally gave one last scream and she fell to the floor.

"Come on, get up!" Zoey said helping Rochelle to her feet.

"Thanks, Zoey. I didn't see that bitch there." Rochelle sighed.

"You going to be alright there, Ro?" Coach asked looking at her worried.

"I'll be fine. Fortunately Zoey and I managed to find three more health packs right on that table over there next to the door." Rochelle said looking in the direction where the health packs were at.

Nick, Bill, and Zoey went for the health packs and quickly picked them up. Nick and Bill quickly went towards Rochelle and Coach to heal them.

"Well, at least we have two health packs now." Zoey said, but one look at Francis and she knew that if he got hit one more time he definitely would need some help.

Francis took out his bottle of pain pills and took one making him feel slightly better. He put the bottle back in his pocket and waited with Ellis, Louis, and Zoey for Nick and Bill to finish healing their teammates. Ellis looked at Francis feeling completely bothered that he was the only one who hadn't healed his teammate. He started reaching for the pack on his back, but Francis caught his arm and held on to it preventing Ellis from getting it.

"I already told you don't worry about it." Francis told him slightly wincing from the pain.

Ellis looked at him worried and reluctantly he nodded and Francis let go of his arm.

"Aw, hell no!" Louis suddenly cried making everyone look at him.

"What is it?" Bill asked quickly finishing off healing Coach.

"They're breaking through the window!" Louis said pointing towards the front where they had entered the building.

The window had been high up so everyone assumed that the zombies somehow climbed the wall or they got on top of something to get to it.

"Aw, fuck!" Francis yelled as he and whoever wasn't busy healing someone started shooting at them and watched as a few of them dropped to the floor from the window and ran at them.

"Hurry it up, Nick!" Coach told him shooting and killing a hunter that was about to enter the building.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Nick replied finally finishing healing Rochelle.

"Aw, shit y'all the door!" Ellis yelled watching as the door Francis had barred shut started pushing the shelves and couches away from it.

There was a loud noise coming from it and everyone froze in fear.

"How the fuck did we alert the fucking tank?!" Nick yelled as everyone started rushing out the back door still shooting whatever zombies they could get.

"Who the fuck cares?! Just run and shoot whatever gets in the way!" Francis told him.

Ellis made sure everyone else got out before he did and out of the corner of his eye saw a molotov and quickly picked it up and threw it at the door the tank was about to bust through, but not before barely seeing a hunter near him almost jump him, but he pushed it away and shot it. Ellis felt blood coming out of the side of his chest. He looked down and slowly pulled up his shirt to reveal a nice big gash. He put a hand over the wound to try to both stop the bleeding and conceal the pain he was now starting to feel. He quickly let go of his shirt as he heard Francis call out to him.

"Kid, get out of there right now!" Francis said and grabbed his arm and started dragging him out of the warehouse.

Zombies were again rushing at them, but Zoey quickly tossed a pipe bomb that she had managed to find and once again the zombies found themselves distracted.

"What the hell were you doing, Ellis?!" Francis asked as he let go of Ellis and they both ran to keep up with the others who were running and shooting whatever stray zombie ran at them and at whatever special infected showed up.

"I found a molotov so I threw it at the door where the tank was about to bust open. The tank should be on fire right about now" Ellis responded trying his best to deal with the pain as well as hide the fact that he was literally bleeding out.

Francis frowned already hearing that Ellis sounded like he was hurt, but didn't have time to look as he saw a charger charge at Nick, Rochelle, and Bill sending Rochelle and Nick flying and it grabbed a hold of Bill and started slamming him against the hard cement floor of the road.

"Hang on, old man!" Francis said as he started shooting at the charger, but it was Coach who had killed it.

"Thanks, I owe you one." Bill said to Coach as he stood up.

Coach grinned.

"Bill, you don't owe me nuthin." Coach told him.

"Goddamn, I really hate this zombie apocalypse!" Nick said as he and Rochelle stood up.

"Guys, the tank!" Louis yelled looking behind him and saw that the tank (was on fire) was already chasing after them and it picked up a huge rock and hurled it towards Francis and Ellis who were the ones lagging behind the others and were closer to the tank.

It barely missed Francis by just a few inches and Francis was already starting to limp again. He quickly pulled out his pain pills and took another one and immediately start to gain speed again. He and Ellis turned and they both started shooting at the tank and it went down right away.

"Nice one, kid. Now let's hurry up and catch up with the others." Francis told him as he turned around.

Ellis didn't reply and Francis wondered if something was wrong.

"Kid?" Francis asked as he turned to look at him.

Francis watched horrified as Ellis collapsed to the floor and blood started pooling around him.

"ELLIS!" Francis screamed over the loud noise of gun shots and zombie noises (including jockey, boomer, and spitter) and ran towards him.

Francis was loud enough to get Nick's attention making him turn to see what happened and saw that Francis was kneeling next to Ellis and was shaking him. Nick turned white as soon as he saw the blood underneath Ellis. Rochelle turned to see why Nick wasn't following behind her and her eyes went wide as soon as she saw Ellis. She walked up to Nick and grabbed his hand.

"Nick, Francis will get Ellis let's just move before we wind up in more trouble." Rochelle told him and tried to pull him along with her but he just stood there in shock, "Nick, please." She begged.

Nick continued to watch with wide eyes as Francis slowly picked up Ellis and held him in his arms.

"Don't worry I'm going to get you out of here…you're not going to die out here, Ellis. I promise." Francis whispered to him and despite the fact that he was in even more pain, started running as fast as he could away from the zombies that were chasing after him.

"Francis, watch out!" Zoey cried and quickly killed the jockey that was trying to jump on him.

As soon as Francis passed him, Nick finally started following behind him and killed anything that tried to get to him and Ellis. Rochelle looked completely hurt as she also followed behind them.

"What the hell happened to him?!" Louis asked once Francis caught up with him and Zoey.

Coach was heard yelling out something as something exploded.

"I don't know, man. He just collapsed and…he's bleeding pretty badly." Francis told him worried.

Zoey winced as she looked at Ellis.

"Oh yeah that is bad alright." Zoey said pointing at the wound.

"Shit, when did he get that?" Louis asked.

Francis thought about it and immediately he started feeling extremely guilty as he looked down at Ellis in his arms. Francis swallowed.

"I wasn't looking after him…why didn't I fucking stay with the kid?!" Francis said to him.

"It isn't your fault, man." Louis told him, "Look as soon as we get to a safe area we can help him alright, Francis?"

Francis obviously wasn't listening as he continued talking.

"I just had one job to do and that's it. It was to always make sure the kid was safe and after losing sight of him for a few fucking months the first thing I do is let him get hurt." Francis slightly started to shake as he looked down at Ellis's unconscious face, "I'll never forgive myself if you die, kid."

Louis, Zoey, and Nick were in total shock of what Francis just said (Rochelle and Bill went to help Coach after getting vomited on) and none of them even noticed that all the zombies were gone.

Author's note: as I expected Bill is gone T_T that was really sad just seeing his body there…I felt like crying. Besides that the passing is just awesome! Now I can't wait for the add on for the first game lol. What's also funny is the reviews seem to direct more toward my notes then to my story which is cool and all since I do like getting answers from you guys, but it makes me think are you guys into my story at all or just my notes? I know one person is into the story since they said they're starting to like the FrancisxEllis pairing and obviously so are the people who story alerted my story or favorited it, but I would like to know your honest opinion if you want to review you don't have to if you don't want to, but I was just curious if my story is getting better or was the idea good, but it's getting kinda sucky. I can't tell because I'm the writer with weird ideas as you can see from the couple and I haven't gotten any reviews that directly talked about my story so I really don't know. All We've been talking about is the stubborn Nick bot lmao and people playing as him which by the way I would love to get chased by Nick holding a health pack XD Hmm maybe I shouldn't ask questions that way it would all be just about the story or maybe no notes at all…nah I like being a chatter box even if in reality im shy and quiet, but on here I'm chatty as you can see XD I'll stop now before I bore you guys to death or somehow start this note into a story of its own.


	5. Worried

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

"How's he doing?" Francis asked as he saw Zoey finish stitching up Ellis's wound.

The group managed to find another safe place to stay in for now, but they all knew that any infected could still get in since it wasn't a safe house so they had a few of them keep watch while the others rested and had a little bit of their water. Ellis was lying down on a couch still unconscious and it made Francis a bit anxious and nervous. Zoey shook her head and glared at Francis.

"Francis, this is already the fifth time you've asked. He should be fine he just needs some rest how many times do I have to tell you that?! We're just lucky we found this place as fast as we did even though it still took some time to get here and we haven't seen any sign of the infected since the warehouse! Thank god the windows of this house are boarded up so nothing can see in here." Zoey told him annoyed, "shouldn't you be out standing guard with Nick, Bill, and Coach?"

Francis rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. Zoey sighed and shook her head.

"Francis, could you at least look around for some more health kits? I don't think the pain pills and adrenalines are going to help us very much." Zoey said.

"Already did. Turns out almost everyone can have one now." Francis told her looking back in her and Ellis's direction.

Zoey smiled and sighed with relief.

"That's good. So who's…?"

"I'll be the one to go without a health pack."

Zoey looked at him.

"Francis, if this is about Ellis it wasn't your fault." Zoey said worried that he might do something stupid.

Francis looked at Ellis with sadness in his eyes.

"Just let me know when the kid wakes up, Zoey." Francis told her and walked past Rochelle and Louis who were sitting down at a table and drinking some of the water from their water bottles and headed back outside to stand guard again for any sign of the infected.

"Man, Francis is just as stubborn as Nick." Rochelle sighed putting down hers and Nick's water bottle.

"I can't believe he refuses to tell us about him and Ellis," Louis sighed, "but then it shouldn't surprise me since the only thing he's ever admitted to us were the things that he hates which is pretty much everything."

"Want to bet that admitting something important is on that list?" Rochelle asked.

"Oh I know it's already there. There's no need for that bet." Louis told her.

Rochelle sighed and looked at her water bottle sadly.

"What's wrong, Rochelle, is it?" Louis asked looking at her.

Rochelle nodded and looked up at him.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it, Louis." Rochelle told him.

Zoey couldn't help but listen in on Louis and Rochelle's conversation. Zoey already knew exactly what was bothering Rochelle since she too had noticed Nick's strange behavior since they left the safe house earlier. Zoey decided that she'll talk to Rochelle about it later as she turned her attention back to Ellis who was making weird faces and was starting to move. Zoey frowned figuring it might be a nightmare. She leaned closer to Ellis and gently shook him.

"Ellis, wake up. Um I think you're having a nightmare." Zoey said softly to him.

Ellis didn't hear her as his mind was somewhere else. He was back inside the burning building and the teenaged boy was struggling to get himself and Ellis out of there. Debris continued to fall and both boys were coughing from the smoke and the heat. Ellis shook clinging on to the teen for dear life. His back was being rubbed and could barely make out the words 'you'll be alright' and just as suddenly as he thought he was going to pass out it quickly went away as he felt the nice cool air from outside the building. It was dark and he heard his parents scream out his name. Ellis felt himself being put down and he turned to see where the boy went, but it was so dark he couldn't see a thing and Ellis immediately started crying just as Keith and his parents went up to him and hugged him. Back with Zoey and the others, Zoey quickly stood up and went to look for Francis. She found him talking to Coach and Bill. Nick was also nearby and was obviously listening in on their conversation.

"Francis, the kid will be fine. Zoey knows what she's doing. Plus it wasn't as bad as we thought it was." Bill told him.

"Boy, that kid ain't going down without a fight. He'll pull through and once he does you and him can make out. I approve of the two of you." Coach laughed as he saw Francis turn bright red.

"It's not like that…" Francis growled slightly, but he was mostly embarrassed then he was angry.

"How can you say 'it's not like that' when it's clearly obvious that not only are you taking care of just him, but he's obviously getting attached to your sorry ass." Nick said glaring at him.

Francis glared back at him.

"Since when did you suddenly give a fuck of who I take care of whether he likes me or not. As I recall so far you've only looked after Rochelle and from what it looks like, to me is that you're jealous." Francis told him his upper lip starting to twitch.

Nick snorted.

"Jealous? Of what?!" Nick asked.

Francis looked at him in surprise and shook his head.

"Man are you in denial. Nick just look after your girlfriend. As long as I'm here I'll take care of the kid so stay the hell away from him since all you've ever done from what I've heard is hurt him." Francis said.

"Um, Francis?" Zoey asked making the guys jump.

"Oh hey, Zoey I didn't know you were there." Francis sighed.

"What is it?" Bill asked noticing that she looked nervous.

"It's Ellis." Zoey said making both Francis and Nick look at her in alarm, "I don't know if he's having a nightmare or what, but he's starting to have a fit."

Francis quickly went back inside the house and found that Ellis had fallen to the floor and was tossing and turning. He went up to him and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from moving.

"Hey, kid…" Francis said loud enough to awake someone who was sleeping, but Ellis was still out of it and was trying to move around, "Ellis."

"Where did you go? Come back, please I'm still scared…" Ellis had said.

Francis looked at him in shock remembering him saying that along time ago.

Ellis was still in his dream and was looking around for the guy who saved him from the burning building. His mom and dad tried to pick him up, but he kept running away from them. Keith even tried to grab on to his arm, but Ellis yanked it away and kept running around looking for his savior. Something about him made Ellis felt safe and protected and he didn't know why, but he didn't want his mom, dad, or his friend. He wanted the guy with the tattoo on his right arm. Ellis suddenly heard someone yelling and his eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly looking around.

"What's going on? Are we being attacked?!" Ellis asked wide eyed until he saw that everyone was looking at him, "what?"

"Well, that did the trick." Rochelle sighed.

"No we're not being attacked, kid." Bill told him.

"Ro, I thought we were going to let him rest for a bit." Coach said looking at her.

"Well, he was having a fit so he'll have to rest later." Rochelle responded.

"That's a bit cold even for you, Rochelle." Nick said.

"Why do you care, Nick?!" Rochelle snapped at him.

Nick made a face.

"What the fuck makes you guys think I care about him?!" Nick asked completely aggravated.

"Forget it you guys maybe we should start making our way out of here." Zoey said.

Ellis looked at everyone confused as to why Rochelle was upset. He started to stand up, but immediately winced in pain.

"Kid, hold up. Zoey barely finished stitching your wound. You shouldn't be moving around right now." Francis told him grabbing a hold of his arm.

Ellis looked at him and suddenly a tattoo on Francis's arm caught his eye and Ellis just stared at it. Francis looked nervous and quickly let go of Ellis's arm.

"Maybe it is a good time to start moving again. So far there's been no sign of the infected anywhere since obviously none of you guys have said anything if there were any around." Louis said.

"No there isn't, and that's what's worrying me." Bill said.

"Why's that, old man?" Francis asked.

Bill sighed.

"There's a good chance that they could try to do what they did earlier and ambush us again. Though next time we might not be so lucky." Bill replied.

"You worry too much." Francis said.

Bill narrowed his eyes at him.

"Would you rather have the kid die just because you weren't prepared for what might have happened?" Bill asked.

Francis didn't respond as he helped Ellis up and gave him their water bottle so he could drink some water and turned back to look at Bill.

"That's not going to happen, Bill." Francis told him.

"Francis, in times like these you can't decide who lives or dies so if I were you I'd take extreme precaution especially if you don't want to lose him." Bill said.

Francis knew that Bill was right as he clenched his fists tightly to his side. Ellis kept looking at one of the tattoos on Francis's arm and he knew that he had to get a closer look at it because for some reason it seemed very familiar to him.

'That can't be the same tattoo that other guy had…can it?' Ellis asked himself.

"Alright y'all ready to head on out now?" Coach asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Just make sure to grab a health pack that's in the bathroom and laundry room." Francis told them.

Ellis watched as they all went to get one except for Francis.

"Francis aren't you gunna get one?" Ellis asked.

Francis smiled at him and shook his head.

"There wasn't enough for everyone and I already healed myself earlier so I'll be fine without one for now." Francis told him.

Ellis looked at him and then started to give him the pack that was lying on top of the couch that he had been laying on.

"Ellis, that's yours. Keep it for now. I promise if I get hurt you can give it to me or you can heal me yourself alright?" Francis asked.

Ellis nodded looking at him sadly.

"Yeah, alright."

Nick looked over at them, who already had his health pack, shook his head and looked away.

'This time I'm making sure he stays in front of me.' Francis said to himself.

Author's note: Wow the first four chapters alone had a total of nine reviews which is one less from my last completed story meaning im getting more reviews for this story then I did the last one awesome! ^_^ thanks you guys so much! Anyway a little spoiler for you guys someone is going to die in fact probably two, but one will be revived don't worry. It's not until near the end of the story so no need to worry about it for now. I'm also very surprised and happy to see that because of my story people are getting into FrancisxEllis which is totally awesome! Sorry to say I'm not in a talkative mood right now for whatever reason I'm not sure but I will say this if I somehow do make another story for l4d I will most likely not finish it unless you guys push me to finish it. I don't know why it's the third story that I feel like I wont finish it because I'll be too lazy to finish it or I'll be so busy that I can't or my computer dies on me again T_T hopefully it wont happen, but its happened twice already so I'm using a laptop instead.


	6. It's a Trap!

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

"How are you holding up, kid?" Francis asked after having walked for awhile and no one still hadn't seen or heard any sign of the infected. Francis had made sure that Ellis was in front of him so it left Francis at the back of the group.

"I'm alright. It's not as bad as it looks." Ellis replied despite the fact that he had his hand over the wound that had been stitched up.

Francis looked at him and knew that he was obviously lying.

"Ellis, why didn't you say anything right away when you were hurt? I could have given you the rest of the pain pills." Francis asked.

Ellis shook his head and turned to look at him smiling.

"They were yers, Francis. Besides if I had told you that I was hurt you would have given me yer pain pills and the tank would have definitely been on you. That reminds me of the time when Keith and I were back in our hometown and we had found ourselves in some deep shit when zombies out of no where came rushing at us. Of course Keith insisted that we punch them to death to get away from them when I get mahself surrounded by whole bunches of them and Keith literally had to fight his way to get to me. We barely managed to get away and that's when things got real bad." Ellis said before he was interrupted.

"Ellis, is now the best time?" Nick asked not even looking back at him.

Ellis frowned looking at him.

'How the heck did he hear me? I'm all the way in the back and he's close to the front of the group.' Ellis thought to himself.

Even Francis was surprised considering that Ellis wasn't talking that loud. Nick turned his head slightly to look at Ellis and sighed.

"Ever heard of the word quiet, Ellis? That's exactly how all of us have been except for just now when you began talking with your boyfriend. Of course I heard you." Nick told him and turned to face the front again.

Ellis blushed and rubbed his head nervously.

"Uh, Nick? Francis ain't my…"

"Ellis was talking? I didn't hear nuthin." Coach said.

"I could say the same thing, but then again I'm old." Bill replied looking around to make sure there wasn't going to be a sudden ambush on them again.

Rochelle grit her teeth and turned to look at Nick who was right next to her.

"Do you always have to pay attention to him?!" Rochelle asked.

"Rochelle, Ellis is fucking annoying. How can I not when he's always going off with his lame ass Keith stories." Nick told her.

Rochelle glared at him and immediately walked closer towards Louis and Zoey. Nick sighed and shook his head.

'What the fuck?! Why does Rochelle think I pay more attention to that kid then I do to her?!' Nick thought angrily to himself.

"Man, oh man is she mad." Louis said walking up to Nick.

"What do you want?" Nick asked.

"Looks like I'll be your teammate for now. Rochelle said that she was going to be with Zoey." Louis replied.

Nick raised an eyebrow and sighed wondering how he didn't hear that conversation.

"Whatever." Nick replied.

Francis looked at Ellis wondering if maybe looking after him wasn't such a good thing as he thought it was before.

'I know I wanted to make sure that he'll be safe, but it doesn't change the fact that I know that he'll never care for me the way I care for him. In fact from what it looks like to me is that he'll never recognize me and I know its my fault from leaving him as soon as he was safe before, but it was for his own good. He deserves to be with someone way better then me anyway so I guess I should be thankful that he doesn't remember me, but why do I feel so hurt when he looks at me like he just met me and says that I'm not his boyfriend. He did say before that he was looking for me obviously, but I'm not going to tell him that, because I'm afraid of what might happen if he does get attached to me and something happens to one of us.' Francis thought to himself biting his lip. 'I can't do that to the kid and like Bill said you never know when something could happen, but then because of that reason maybe I should tell the kid.'

Francis didn't notice that Ellis had been looking at him for the past minute and was waving a hand in his face.

"Hello? You in there, man?" Ellis asked starting to get worried.

Francis blinked and focused in on him and grinned.

"Yeah sorry about that. I just had something on my mind that's all." Francis told him, "Did you want to finish your story, kid? I was starting to get interested."

Ellis looked at him in surprise not used to being asked to tell more about his story.

"I'm afraid he's going to have to wait to finish his story later, Francis." Zoey told him.

"Why?" Francis asked looking at her.

"Well, unless you want to alert one of the witches and bump into one of the cars I suggest you look straight ahead." Zoey replied.

Down the road there were at least five witches all wearing a wedding dress and three cars that had alarms that would go off if someone accidentally shot or touched them.

"This is a problem." Coach said also seeing a couple of other normal infected and heard what sounded like a jockey.

Ellis frowned.

"Can't we just go around them?" Ellis asked.

"No, dumbass we can't go around them because they're blocking our way to the safe house or did you not see that sign next to them?" Nick said pointing at it.

Ellis and Francis caught up and stood next to the others to get a good look at what they were going to have to deal with. Francis rolled his eyes.

"Dude, who needs the sign when I can clearly see the door to the safe house over there." Francis said nodding to the building that had a barely noticeable red door.

"Well, how do we get past them without tripping any of the car alarms or alerting any of the witches?" Rochelle asked nervously, "Plus there's that jockey to worry about."

"Hang on I might have an idea. All we need is some boomer vile so we can distract the zombies and kill them and then once the jockey shows up we make sure and kill it before it can jump on any of us." Coach said.

"That's easier said then done, man. Look at how close those witches are to each other!" Louis replied, "If we alert even one we might as well have alerted all of them and that could spell death for anyone of us."

"Have some faith in us will ya?" Francis asked, "There is a chance we could either kill most if not all of them or we evade them all and no damage will have been done."

Louis glared at Francis.

"Francis, it's hard enough dealing with one witch, but five in one place? I don't know man."

"Well, unless you have any other ideas genius please feel free to let us know." Francis said.

Louis didn't respond.

"Well, looks like we're going with yer idea, Coach." Ellis said.

Coach nodded looking at him then turned his attention back to the threat ahead of them.

"I don't know if it's full proof, but if something goes wrong y'all can blame me for it. Now split up and go look for some boomer vile and yell out if yer in trouble." Coach told them.

It didn't take long before Rochelle and Zoey came back with one and surprisingly there hadn't been any trouble with any of the infected while they were all looking. Bill looked even more worried then before as Zoey tossed out the boomer vile and as expected the normal infected went after it. Quickly and quietly as they could they all started to walk past the witches who were slowly starting to growl.

"Hurry up, y'all!" Coach whispered to them as he and Bill made it past the witches and cars.

"Aw shit, man!" Ellis said as the witches growls grew louder.

"Run!" Francis said and immediately everyone else started running.

"Francis, behind you!" Zoey cried out as soon as she saw the jockey that was trying to get on Francis.

Bill tried shooting at it, but just as Francis and Ellis passed him the jockey jumped on Bill and steered him toward the witches.

"BILL!" Zoey screamed.

Everyone else headed directly to the safe room while Francis quickly turned around and tried shooting at the jockey on Bill's back, but it was too late and all five witches were on him.

"Just go!" Bill yelled out in pain as the witches tore into him.

"Francis!" Ellis yelled and saw that all the zombies had been waiting for them to show up here.

Francis ran and just as he, Zoey, and Ellis entered the room and shut the door behind them the charger had run past the door, obviously trying to hit someone, but missed as well as goo appearing on the floor and the sound of one maybe two hunters was there as well.

"That was too fucking close, again!" Nick sighed.

"Is it just me or are these things getting smarter?" Rochelle asked.

"They're definitely getting smarter baby girl." Coach replied clenching his fists.

"Oh god not Bill!" Zoey cried.

Francis was in complete shock as he lowered himself to the ground right next to the door. He closed his eyes tightly and swallowed as he heard the witches start to run off.

Author's note: ok yeah Bill's death came a little earlier then what I originally thought, but hey it works this way too. I'm so sorry Bill T_T I couldn't kill off anyone else forgive me! Also I tried having Ellis tell a Keith story and I'm sorry if it kinda sucked lol. I had it so where they were together right when the infection hit and it was also when they got separated. Next chapter will mostly deal with them being in the safe house so there probably wont be any more action until later when it comes to the big finale. I have to say I'm glad I decided to make this as my second l4d story because if it was my third it probably would never get finished unless like I said last chapter someone pushes me. Ugh I'm starting to feel lazy again but I must continue to the end I think I need a cookie...lol aw well as long as I have two complete stories out there im good so that's probably why the third story of south park didn't get finished because I wasn't into it anymore (and besides the fact my computer died on me while I was working on it)


	7. Safe Room

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

After what had just happened to Bill and with tons of infected and special infected already outside the safe room door, everyone decided to stay in the safe room for the rest of the day and not leave until tomorrow. Coach, Louis, and Nick immediately barred the safe room door shut and as soon as they were done, Coach went to stand guard at the exit of the other safe room door. Zoey was sitting on the floor crying shaking back and forth and Louis went to her and held her in his arms.

"It's ok, Zoey. It's going to be ok." Louis said trying to comfort her.

This only made her cry harder as she clung to him.

"He s-saved us s-so many t-times! Why did he h-have to die?!" Zoey sobbed.

Louis looked at her sadly not knowing how to answer her as he hugged her. Nick walked up to Rochelle who had been staring at him since they got into the safe room.

"We need to talk, Nick." Rochelle told him and walked to one of the rooms upstairs so no one could hear them.

"Rochelle, this isn't about Ellis again is it?" Nick asked sighing as he followed behind her.

Ellis frowned watching as they headed upstairs, but then turned his attention to Francis who still hadn't said a word since Bill's death which was only about ten fifteen minutes ago. Francis had been in the same position and he had his eyes glued to the floor looking guilty.

"Francis?" Ellis asked moving closer to sit next to him.

Francis didn't look up when Ellis called out to him. The only reaction Ellis got was Francis biting his lip. Ellis looked at him worried and reached out one of his hands to grab Francis's arm. Francis jumped at the sudden contact and looked over at Ellis.

"Hey, uh, I'm real sorry about yer teammate. It wasn't yer fault so you shouldn't blame yerself, man." Ellis swallowed, "If it weren't fer him though those witches would have been on one of us and I'm just glad it ain't you." Ellis wondered when he suddenly started paying more attention to Francis then to Nick.

Francis slowly nodded and then looked away. He hadn't just been thinking about Bill. He had also thought that it could have been him or Ellis since the jockey did nearly jump on him, but could have just as easily jumped on Ellis instead.

'Shit, I'm going to get the kid killed here. I couldn't help Bill so what makes me think that I will be able to stop Ellis from getting killed?' Francis closed his eyes again tightly trying to get rid of that thought, but instead in his mind he saw Ellis's cold dead body and he shuddered at the image.

Ellis looked at him feeling nervous as he leaned toward him and hugged him tightly thinking that Francis was still feeling bad about Bill. Francis immediately blushed and looked down at him.

"Kid, what are you..?" Francis was about to ask.

"Why hell I just wanted you to know that I'm here for you and if you needed someone to talk to…well like I said I'm here." Ellis replied and snuggled against him.

'Aw man, he is warm!' Ellis smiled to himself blushing.

Francis looked at him for a few seconds before finally smiling and putting his left arm around Ellis's body. Yelling could be heard coming from upstairs and everyone downstairs went silent as they listened to what Nick and Rochelle were saying.

"Nick, stop denying it already! You've already made it perfectly clear to me and no doubt to everyone else that you like Ellis!" Rochelle yelled angrily.

"I do not like Ellis!" Nick told her emphasizing each word, "How many god damn fucking times do I have to say or prove that to you, Rochelle?! I've been with you this whole time taking care of you not him!"

"Nick, you want to know what I think? I think you're using me to get Ellis's attention to make him jealous, but now that he's got Francis you can't stand the fact that Ellis adores him now more then you!" Rochelle put her hands on her hips and glared at Nick.

"Rochelle, that is so fucking stupid. I couldn't care less what that stupid hick does. If he fucking dies I wouldn't give a rat's ass! Because he was always the one to cause problems for us anyway." Nick replied.

Rochelle went up to him and slapped him hard across the face.

"What the hell, Rochelle?!" Nick asked rubbing his cheek.

"That is total bullshit, Nick. When Ellis was hurt earlier the look I saw on your face, I thought for sure you were going to have some kind of a panic attack. You wouldn't take your eyes off him and what was worse was that you didn't come with me when I begged you to." Rochelle's eyes started to water, "I care about Ellis, I do, but when he's always the one whose got your attention…I can't take it anymore, Nick. I'm done with you. As soon as we're out of this zombie apocalypse shit I'm going to go find myself a guy who will actually pay attention and care about me and not some other guy or girl." Rochelle told him and headed back downstairs tears already falling down her face.

Ellis's eyes went wide as he watched Rochelle come back downstairs and rushed into one of the bedrooms and shut it behind her. Zoey got up from where she was at with Louis and went towards the room Rochelle ran in closing the door and locking it behind her. Louis thought about what Rochelle said and smiled slightly.

"I wonder if she would be willing to go out with me." Louis said.

"Louis, man she just broke up with her ass of a boyfriend. I don't think she's going to want to deal with someone else for awhile." Francis said looking at him.

Louis shrugged a blush starting to form on his face.

"Well, you never know."

"Hey, y'all I'm real sorry that my plan didn't work out the way I thought it was going to." Coach suddenly said standing up from where he was sitting and turned to look at Francis and Louis.

"Don't worry about it, man. It wasn't your fault. There were simply too many witches and they were too close to kill the jockey before he startled them." Louis told him still feeling bad that Bill was killed.

"Well, I did say y'all can blame me if it went bad, so I don't blame you if you do." Coach replied.

"What's there to blame? You were only trying to help us get to the safe house." Francis said.

"Yeah, but I was supposed to make sure he would make it in here. He was my teammate." Coach told him.

Francis went silent. Ellis looked up at him still worried that Francis was beating himself up over Bill. Nick finally came downstairs and the first thing he saw was Ellis hugging Francis. Nick made a face before finally deciding that he would be better off staying upstairs for the rest of the time they were still here in the safe house. Francis glared at him as he watched Nick head back upstairs. He sighed and shook his head.

"Well, now what?" Louis asked.

"We're staying here tonight so we can rest up for tomorrow. I heard there was an evac center somewhere around here. It's supposed to be near an old concert stage where bands used to play on." Coach replied.

"Well, isn't that a relief. We're almost out of here!" Louis said happily.

"Louis, I hate to break it to you, but so far every time we've gotten 'rescued' Zoey ended up killing the driver or pilot." Francis sighed.

"They were zombies, Francis!" Zoey responded from the other side of the door.

"Whatever point is the only way for us to get out of this shit hole is for us to rescue ourselves." Francis said.

"How do you plan to do that, Francis?" Louis asked.

Francis shrugged.

"I don't know I'll think of something."

Ellis grinned and then blushed when he realized he hadn't let go of Francis yet and quickly sat up and moved away. Coach laughed.

"Well y'all better start picking rooms to sleep in. I'll be the one to watch the door while y'all are resting." Coach said.

"Coach, there's no need for you to do that. I could watch the door after yer done with yer shift or hell I could watch it all night." Ellis told him.

"Maybe it's a good idea, Coach." Louis said, "At least this way Francis won't feel the need to rape Ellis while their sleeping and then nobody will get any sleep."

Francis and Ellis turned bright red. Coach laughed even harder.

"They'd be so loud that Nick would get in there and straighten it out. Who knows maybe he might get involved too." Coach grinned.

"What like a threesome?" Louis asked.

"Before I come down there and kick all your asses shut the fuck up!" Nick shouted from upstairs.

Coach and Louis roared with laughter. Francis glared at them.

"You know what? Ellis and me will sleep in the same room." Francis said.

Ellis looked at him wide eyed his whole face turning red.

"Are you serious?! Yer not gunna….are you?" Ellis asked starting to get a little jumpy.

"Hell no, kid. I'm going to prove to these guys that I can be sleeping in the same room as you without raping you as these guys call it." Francis replied, but deep down he wished that he could be holding him while they both slept and kissing him and…

Coach and Louis's smiles went wider.

'Um…it's not going to be a problem. All I have to do is sleep on the side facing away from Ellis that's all. Maybe this was a bad idea.' Francis thought.

"Hey stop giving me that look already." Francis said looking at both Coach and Louis.

"How much do you want to bet that he will rape the poor kid?" Louis asked.

"If I had money on me, fifty dollars saying that he will." Coach grinned.

"Hey no fair I was going to call that." Louis said.

'I swear I'm going to fucking kill these guys!' Francis thought angrily.

The rest of the day went by fast with the girls in their room talking about Nick and then moving on to the relationships they had in the past. Coach and Louis continued to make fun of Ellis and Francis until Francis had mentioned food and Coach was forced to look around for some and found that there was actually cereal this time with enough milk to feed everyone for tonight and in the morning. As soon as everyone finished they all went to their rooms (each sharing a room except for Coach who kept watch) and got into the beds. All of their rooms had king size beds. Nick refused to sleep in the same bed as Louis so he slept on the floor.

"It's actually nice being in a bed again." Zoey said as she got under the blankets.

"I know what you mean. I totally missed this." Rochelle replied also getting under the blankets.

In Francis and Ellis's room, both of them were nervous in sleeping in the same bed as each other. After a few minutes of trying to get the other to sleep in the bed they both finally agreed to get in. It was awkward between them since apparently the others were expecting something to happen between them. After a few minutes of silence between them Francis turned his head to look at Ellis.

"Kid, you alright?" Francis asked, "You seem a bit quiet."

Ellis nodded.

"I'm fine. I just never shared a bed with anyone before." Ellis admitted.

"Don't worry you're not the only one." Francis told him and turned to lay on his left side, "Well lets hope tomorrow goes better then how today went. We can't afford to lose anyone else." Francis almost whispered the last part.

Ellis nodded and turned to look at him. He stared at his arm for a few seconds and concentrated on the tattoo he saw earlier. After a few minutes of looking his eyes went wide.

"Uh, Francis?" Ellis asked.

Francis already started snoring and Ellis assumed that he fell asleep.

'Damn he's a fast sleeper, but it couldn't be him can it? I mean it is the same tattoo that just happens to be on the exact same spot…' Ellis thought and immediately thought of what the guy might have looked like seventeen years ago 'Holy shit I think it's him!'

Ellis thought back to when the incident happened and he tried to piece together what the guy did look like. His eyes went even wider as he discovered that Francis did look exactly like the guy who saved his life except older.

'It is him!'

Author's note: If you read Pure BoNK's story I borrowed that whole Francis raping Ellis from their story so if you ever read mine I'm sorry, but I had to use it because it was just so funny! XD If you guys are curious their story is called Already8. I'm hoping that they'll update soon because I like their story. Like I said this chapter was all in the safe room so no zombies. Anyway it looks like my story is coming to an end soon. How soon? I don't know. But anyway little spoiler Bill will be in an upcoming chapter, no he's still dead, you'll understand later. Anyway it was kinda hard to write this chapter considering when I checked my mail on myspace I got mail from my ex boyfriend who I haven't heard from in a couple of years and he said he was sorry that he treated me the way he did. He asked me out, but he didn't like me that way and I was in love with him from middle school to the end of high school so um as you can see I was bothered by it. It bothered me to the point that I for some reason didn't play as good as I usually do on horde on Gears of War 2 I almost always went done when before that hardly ever happened T_T. I almost couldn't even seem to get this chapter out. I'm sorry I shouldn't be telling you guys this, but I can't tell it to anyone else I don't really have any friends in rl except my brothers friends. Yeah I'm lonely and it kinda hurt me even though the relationship ended like 2-3 years ago. Hopefully it wont bother me when I update next time.


	8. Just Tell Him

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

Ellis couldn't sleep the rest of the night. He spent the whole time staring at Francis's tattoo and then at his sleeping form. He thought of waking him up a few times, but decided to let him sleep and the whole time Ellis thought to himself that it should have been obvious considering how Francis had been acting towards him for only a day in a half.

'Now I know why he acted like he knew me. It was because he was the one who saved my life before.' Ellis swallowed 'Maybe I shouldn't assume it's him though. I'll just ask him in the morning once he's awake.'

Ellis already knew that it was Francis, but he wanted to hear it out of Francis's mouth telling him that he was right that he was the one who carried him out of the fire. Ellis didn't notice until he was up against Francis's back and was surprised to see that Francis hadn't awaken from the sudden touch. Ellis blushed.

'Uh, maybe I shouldn't' Ellis argued with himself 'aw to hell with it. It'll give us a reason to talk right away in the morning.'

Ellis slowly, turning redder as he did, wrapped his arms around Francis's chest and jumped in surprise when he felt Francis start to move. He sighed with relief as soon as he stopped. Ellis closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. Few hours later Ellis hadn't noticed as light entered the room signaling that it was morning and he jumped in alarm when he heard laughing coming from in front of the door to his room and immediately pulled his arms away from Francis and sat up.

"Well I expected something to happen just not this!" Louis laughed.

"What's going on, Louis?" a voice asked.

"The kid had been sleeping with his arms around Francis!" Louis shook his head smiling trying to stifle his laughter.

"Aw that's so cute!" Zoey said looking in and smiling.

Ellis was completely embarrassed and to make things worse he saw Francis wake up and look at his teammates.

"What are you guys doing in here?" Francis asked yawning and started getting out of the bed.

"You mean to tell me, man that you didn't feel him practically hugging you?" Louis asked pointing at Ellis.

Francis turned his head to look at Ellis who was now looking away because he felt himself burn up from blushing too hard.

"What the hell's all this racket about?" Coach asked looking at Louis and Zoey who were peering in Francis and Ellis's room.

"Well, neither of us won the bet, man. Ellis was the one who was probably doing something with Francis." Louis told him.

"He was apparently hugging him from what Louis told me." Zoey smiled.

Coach was shocked at first as he also looked in the room. Francis growled.

"Hey, this isn't a peep show you guys." Francis said standing up and moving to close and lock the door.

There was a small protest coming from them and soon Nick and Rochelle's were heard talking to the others. Francis sighed shaking his head and then went back towards Ellis and looked at him.

"Ellis?" Francis asked.

"I swear I didn't do nuthin. All I did was after you had fallen asleep I uh put my arms around you and I guess I didn't notice when everyone was starting to get up." Ellis looked at him completely nervous.

Francis stared at him for a few seconds and had started to turn pink.

"Uh, and why on earth would you do that, kid?" Francis asked.

Ellis rubbed his neck still looking at him.

"Francis, do you remember what I said before about me looking for someone, besides Keith." Ellis asked.

Francis raised an eyebrow wondering where this was going.

"Yeah, what about it?"

Ellis got off the bed and went to stand in front of Francis. He took a deep breath in and then let it out.

"Were you the one who saved my life when I was a kid?" Ellis asked.

Francis was speechless. He hadn't thought that Ellis would have found out on his own that it had been him who had carried him out of the burning building seventeen years ago. Without thinking Francis quickly shook his head.

"No, kid. It wasn't me. If it was don't you think I would have told you by now?" Francis told him.

Ellis looked at him sadly and nodded.

"I guess yer right. What was I getting all excited for?" Ellis asked and made his way to the door and unlocked it, "We should get ready to head out again, man. Since we already lost someone I'm gunna ask Coach if he's ok teaming up with us alright?"

Without waiting for an answer Ellis exited the room and headed towards the kitchen to have some cereal. Francis could already hear the others asking Ellis what happened and he followed behind him.

'It's better this way. He shouldn't be getting attached to me.' Francis told himself already thinking of a different reason why 'Once we get 'rescued' we'll all probably go our own way and we'll never see each other again.' Now that Ellis suspected that it was him it wouldn't be a good idea to keep tailing him since that would tell him that Francis was the one who saved him and was keeping an eye on him.

Francis decided to stick with this reason instead of worrying about the death version one as he grabbed the bowl he ate out of last night and poured cereal and milk into it and took a seat on the floor and started eating. Francis saw out of the corner of his eye Nick glaring at him and he shrugged assuming that the others already told him. As soon as he was done he went to put it in the sink and went to sit next to the safe room door waiting for everyone else to finish. He watched as Ellis walked up to Coach and asked if he wanted to be with them. Coach smiled at him and nodded, but then looked over at Francis already assuming that something happened between them. As everyone finished eating they all quickly refilled their water bottles and drank some before leaving the safe house. Coach immediately went up to Francis and stopped him from going anywhere. Ellis frowned looking at the both of them.

"Ellis, go on ahead. Francis and I will catch up with you." Coach told him.

Ellis nodded and reluctantly followed behind the others. Francis rolled his eyes and looked at Coach.

"What do you want, old man?" Francis asked.

Coach glared at him.

"Boy, what did you do to that kid?!" Coach asked.

Francis sighed.

"Nothing, man. He simply asked me a question and I answered him."

"Nothing huh? Then how come he asked me if I wanted to team up with you and him?"

"Because, man. Bill's gone and he was just worried since you're his teammate and all about you." Francis told him.

"Francis, call me Coach and second that's not how I took it. The look on his face that I saw when he left your room he was definitely hurt. What exactly did you tell him?" Coach leaned in dangerously close to him.

"Look, Coach it doesn't matter. We really should keep up with the others."

"Francis." Coach growled.

"Alright, man."

Francis began telling him everything from when he first met Ellis until now as they slowly started walking.

"Boy, are you nuts?! Didn't you learn anything from watching Bill get killed?" Coach asked him.

"That's exactly why I don't want to tell him that he was right assuming that it was me that saved him seventeen years ago. What if something happens to one of us, Coach? It could kill him if he got attached to me and I died or hell I already know I'd die if something happened to him." Francis told him.

"It's too late for that, Francis. He's already attached himself to you and you know it Look he's waiting for you." Coach said.

Francis saw that Ellis was lagging behind the others and was looking back at them. Francis just grinned and waved at him. He watched as Ellis started walking again and Francis sighed.

"That's not the only reason man. After this either we're all going our separate ways or our groups are at least and we won't see each other again. Somehow I don't think we're all going to end up in the same place." Francis said looking at Coach.

"Did you ever consider that maybe Ellis might go with you guys? I'm afraid to say it, but there's a good chance he will go just to be with you." Coach told him.

Francis looked at Ellis's back and sighed.

"I don't want that. I just want him to be safe and honestly we don't know where we're going to go yet."

"How about you guys come along with us to New Orleans?" Coach asked.

Francis shook his head.

"Thanks, but we've had just about enough of the military."

"You probably wouldn't say that if Ellis asked."

Francis remained quiet and Coach laughed.

"Francis, just tell him. You're going to regret it if you don't. Trust me." Coach told him.

"I don't know…"

"Boy, he already knows its you. Now all you have to do is take the next step." Coach told him, "You said that all this time your job was to protect him so protect him and tell him the truth."

Francis kept looking at Ellis and suddenly he saw the scared little boy that was hoping for someone to help him and he sighed.

'Aw man.' Francis thought and knew that this time he couldn't leave him.

"Well, ok I'll tell him, Coach as soon as we get ourselves out of this city." Francis told him and both of them went to catch up with the others.

Authors' note: Yeah there was no Nick or Rochelle in this chapter and hardly any Louis and Zoey in it but they will be in it in the next chapter which will more then likely be the starting point of the finale. There may be two-four chapters left till the story comes to an end depending on how I end each chapter. Anyway I've been busy this week going out of town to celebrate my bday which isn't till this Saturday the eighth when I'll be celebrating it again this time with my dad and brother instead of my mom and grandma and an old friend. I'm going to be twenty! Yeah so the story will either end this week or possibly next week depending on how many chapters are left and when I update the story.


	9. Alerting the Horde

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

"What took you guys so long? Look I think that's where we're supposed to be to get rescued." Rochelle said as she watched Coach and Francis walk up to her and then pointed at a big concert stage in front of them where they had stopped walking (end of dark carnival good example of the stage).

"Yeah, I see the vehicle alright." Nick made a face, "Please tell me that's not a fucking van."

"Well, looks like we're rescuing ourselves huh, Francis?" Louis said looking at Francis.

"Thank god. I don't know about you, but I couldn't stand it if Zoey were to kill our driver." Francis told him.

Zoey glared at him.

"Francis, how many times do I have to tell you?! The pilot was a zombie who had been trying to attack us!" Zoey said.

Coach grinned.

"Nick, don't tell me you don't like vans." Coach said looking at him.

"They're not my type of transportation alright?!" Nick told him.

"Aw, but c'mon Nick now we can all travel together." Ellis said smiling.

"I'd prefer it if we didn't ok, Ellis." Nick replied glared at him then at Francis.

Ellis shook his head.

"Whatever, man. I don't get how you can be so cold to not care about what happens to everyone else."

"Oh he cares Ellis. He just doesn't want to admit it." Coach grinned as Nick turned to glare at him.

"I do not care, Coach."

Coach laughed.

"Ok, Nick feel free whenever to let us know when you apparently do care." Coach said and then whispered to Ellis, "Trust me he does."

"Well, it looks like we're going to have to fill that van up with gas." Louis said changing the subject as he looked around and saw gas cans all over the place.

"With seven of us it shouldn't be a problem." Rochelle said.

"As long as the zombies still aren't smart enough to try and separate us to the point where we can't get to whoever might be in trouble." Zoey added looking slightly worried.

"Hey, Zoey. Do us a favor and don't accidentally curse us alright?" Rochelle said looking at her.

Zoey nodded closing her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but after what happened with Bill I just don't think that this is going to be easy at all." Zoey replied.

She wasn't the only one feeling worried. Francis felt something in his gut that something about this was going to go wrong.

'Man I wish Bill was still here. He was always covering our asses. Somehow with him gone it just feels like something's going to happen.' Francis thought.

Francis looked at the stage that still had speakers on top of it on either side and instruments were scattered all on the floor in between them.

"Too bad the midnight riders ain't here. They could have helped us like they did before." Coach sighed.

"Uh, Coach? They weren't there either. Their music was the only thing that was playing." Ellis told him, "But it definitely would have helped if it was playing here too. The midnight riders always helped me out."

"Yeah, well, we're going to have to deal like we've always done without the midnight riders help." Nick told them, "So stop acting like something might happen already. We're going to get through this like we've always have and we'll be on our way to god knows where."

Coach looked at him and grinned. Ellis smiled.

"You do care, Nick." Ellis said.

Nick rolled his eyes not wanting to start this conversation again.

"Whatever."

"Well, let's just go ahead and get to it already." Francis said, "I hate waiting."

"I agree, but before we alert the horde I suggest a few of us pick up those pipe bombs and molotovs." Louis said pointing at a small box that was next to the stage.

While the others went to go get them, Francis kept thinking that this might be the chance to tell Ellis the truth, but the nagging in the pit of his stomach told him that something was going to happen and he swallowed for once feeling completely nervous about alerting the horde.

"You feeling as bad as I do, Francis?" Zoey asked as she walked up to him having just picked up a pipe bomb and looked at him worriedly.

"I don't know, Zoey. I keep feeling like…"

"Like something's going to happen? Same here even though it hasn't exactly been long since Bill…well you know. Anyway I feel like, since he's not here to help us out like he did before, like well…" Zoey bit her lip hesitant about what she was going to say, "I can't help but think that we're going to lose someone else. I have to admit it since I've always relied on you guys to help me out whenever I was in trouble, especially Bill, and to think that someone else is going to….I can't handle it. I need you guys to be ok."

Knowing Zoey was just as worried as he was it only made him start thinking that this was probably a bad idea, but he knew there was no other way if they wanted to get out of the city. Francis put his arms around her and hugged her.

"We'll get out of here alright, Zoey. Nothings going to happen to us for one the guy in the suit is right. All we have to do is do what we normally do, kick some zombie ass, and we're out of here and besides Bill's watching over us." Francis told her.

Zoey slightly laughed.

"I remember how you used to make fun of him. Remember back at Mercy hospital when he asked us to shoot him if he started to turn? You said…"

"I said 'what if your beard starts to turn can I shoot that?'" Francis finished for her grinning.

Zoey giggled.

"That was really funny especially when he responded back to you." Zoey paused for a second, "I miss him"

"We all do, Zoey." Francis said letting go of her.

"Well, we couldn't find anything else to help us out so all we have is what we've already got." Louis said, "I suggest not using the pipe bombs until either we're in a tight spot or when we're about to drive off and if something happens out there it was nice fighting with you guys."

"Same here, Louis. It was nice meeting and killing zombies with you too." Rochelle replied.

"Oh come on how is this any different then before?! No one is going to die!" Nick said.

"A bit optimistic for you don't you think, Nick?" Coach asked.

Rochelle rolled her eyes.

"Coach, Ellis already rubbed off on him so its not exactly a surprise."

"He didn't rub off on me!"

"Nick, you're not going to win this argument alright?" Rochelle told him.

Ellis wasn't paying any attention to his teammates since he had his eyes glued to Francis and Zoey. Francis rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

"Kid, it's not what you think alright? Zoey and I were just talking that's all." Francis told him.

Francis thought that Ellis was going to turn away and ignore him, but instead he hadn't expected for Ellis to come up to him and hug him. That of course got everyone else's attention, especially Nick's.

"I don't want you dying out here either. I don't want anyone dying. We're all gunna make it out of here and that's that." Ellis told him.

Francis was surprised since he didn't think that Ellis wanted to talk to him since he lied to him earlier. He put his arms around him and hugged him back. Francis looked at him worriedly.

"I know, kid. I know. All of us will make it out of here and we'll all be on our way to, uh, wherever we're going." Francis replied.

Ellis frowned and looked up at Francis.

"Ain't you coming with us to New Orleans?" Ellis asked.

Francis started to feel awkward as he looked at Zoey and Louis and then at Ellis.

"I don't think we are, Ellis. Truth is Louis, Zoey, and I have had enough with the military. We already know that they're not going to help us." Francis replied.

"Well then where are y'all going?" Ellis asked still looking at him.

"Uh…"

"We haven't had time to talk about it yet, Ellis." Zoey told him smiling at him.

"Oh, ok well if y'all can't decide…"

"Thanks for that, Ellis. We'll let you know once we've decided." Louis said.

"Enough with the talking. Shouldn't we be getting that stupid van gassed up already?" Nick asked impatiently.

"The moment we start putting the gas inside the van, the horde will be on us right away." Rochelle said.

"Three of us will go for the gas. The rest of you guys protect our asses." Coach said.

"Got it." Francis replied.

Ellis let go of him and looked around for any signs of the infected as Zoey grabbed one of the gas cans and quickly ran towards the van. Rochelle and Coach ran off in different directions to grab some more. Zoey immediately poured it in and just as Rochelle said the sounds of the infected drew closer to them and she turned around in time to see the normal infected rush at all of them.

"Here they come." Zoey said pulling out her sniper rifle and began shooting down zombies as she made her way to the next gas can.

Author's note: In the elevator in no mercy I don't remember exactly the conversation Bill and Francis had, but it was really funny. Francis did ask if he could shoot Bill's beard if it started to turn and one of Bill's responses had something to do with Francis's head being too far up his ass or something I don't remember XD. I'll always remember Bill for that because I was laughing so hard. I'm assuming Nick doesn't like vans just because he looks like the type of person who wouldn't so yeah. All the action and another person's death will be in the next chapter so I hope you all look forward to it. By the way I just wanted to say Mutation is freakin awesome! I absolutely love it! Bleed out is definitely challenging which is why I like it just like how I liked Realism versus. I cant wait for this weeks mutation follow the liter whatever that is ^_^


	10. Carry On My Wayward Son

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

While Coach, Zoey, and Rochelle went for the gas cans Ellis, Francis, Nick, and Louis were doing their best to not only cover their own asses, but to make sure that nothing happens to the others while they were getting the gas cans to the van. Francis started to sweat as he saw more and more zombies come at them. (The guys were on the bleachers while the girls and Coach were down near the stage)

"Dammit, I think I hear a charger!" Nick yelled out pushing zombies away from himself and quickly killing the ones that were attacking Zoey.

"Y'all I hear a hunter!" Ellis cried out who was also pushing zombies away from himself and then started killing them.

"Great, I see one of those long neck bitches! Look out!" Francis yelled as the spitter spit where Rochelle had just finishing pouring a gas can into the van.

Rochelle quickly moved out of the way as she felt the goo bubble beneath her.

"God I hate those things so very much!" Rochelle said killing it as it ran towards her.

"Get this thing off!" Coach cried as the hunter had jumped on him and was already starting to cut him to shreds.

"Coach!" Ellis yelled and quickly aimed his sights on the hunter and shot ignoring the zombies that were still on him.

Nick, being slightly closer to Ellis then Francis was quickly turned and killed them. Francis helped Ellis kill the hunter and Coach started getting to his feet.

"Thanks y'all." Coach said grabbing the gas can the hunter made him drop and made his way to the van.

"Zoey, look out for that charger!" Louis yelled out to her and tried to kill it before it got to her.

Luckily Zoey moved just as the charger was about to ram into her and instead ran right into a wall. It was dazed so it had no time to react as Zoey and Louis shot and killed it.

"Thanks for the warning, Louis!" Zoey told him smiling slightly as she rushed to the van and saw that Coach had finished pouring his gas can in it and started looking for another one.

Zoey had spotted a gas can on the other side of the van. She picked it up and took it to the other side and poured it into the van.

"Keep it up, you guys!" Coach said to everyone as he shot his way to another gas can.

"We've almost got it! I think we're about halfway there!" Rochelle yelled out killing a jockey that was trying to jump on her.

"Tank inbound!" Nick yelled as he saw the tank show up and tried to throw a big rock at them.

"I'm throwing a molotov!" Louis replied and tossed it towards the direction of the tank.

It lit quite a few of the infected on fire and the tank, being as stupid as it was, ran through it and it too was on fire as it angrily ran at Louis throwing its fellow infected out of its way. Louis, Ellis, Francis, and Nick quickly turned their attention to the oncoming tank and just as it reached Louis it died. Louis sighed with relief as he pushed the zombies away from him that had been blocking him from trying to get away.

"That was too close." Louis said.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Louis. Looks like the special infected have turned their attention on us now." Francis told him as he saw that two boomers (male and female), a smoker, and another jockey started making their way towards them.

"I can't get a clear shot at them with all these zombies surrounding us!" Ellis told them trying to shoot at one of the boomers, but ended up missing because of him being hit.

"Hurry it up you guys!" Nick said pushing the zombies away so he could get a clear shot at the smoker who was climbing to the top of the concert stage.

"We're going as fast as we can here!" Zoey replied snipping the male boomer, "I got it!"

Coach barely managed to get to the van with another gas can, but as he started pouring it in the smoker wrapped its tongue around him and started pulling him away from the van. Rochelle shot at the tongue and it let go of Coach.

"Thanks, Ro." Coach said as he looked up and shot and killed the smoker.

"No problem, Coach." Rochelle replied as she picked up the gas can that she had to drop to save Coach and ran to the van just as he picked up his and poured it in.

More zombies showed up and this time they went after Zoey, Coach, and Rochelle.

"Oh, hell no!" Coach said blasting them all either in the head or the chest with his shotgun.

"Guys we could use some help!" Zoey cried as she tried to push her way through the horde of zombies.

"We're having some trouble up here ourselves!" Francis replied having not noticed the jockey that was behind him.

"Francis, behind you!" Ellis yelled and tried killing it before it jumped on him.

Francis quickly turned around at the same time the jockey jumped on him and it started steering him away from the others and more of the zombies started going after him attacking him while he was defenseless.

"This thing is riding me! Somebody get it off!" Francis yelled.

"Hang on, man!" Louis said as he tried shooting at it.

Ellis ran to catch up with him and again ignoring the few zombies that were attacking him finally managed to kill the jockey.

"You alright?" Ellis asked as Rochelle had tossed out a pipe bomb.

Francis nodded.

"I'm fine. Thanks for the help." Francis told him.

"I got yer back." Ellis said smiling.

"Uh, guys? Where the fuck did that ugly boomer go? There were two of them and Zoey killed one of them." Nick asked looking around.

Louis, Francis, and Ellis frowned as they looked around for it.

"This is not good, man." Louis said worried.

"What? It's just a boomer." Francis said.

"You do realize that if a boomer vomits on you it'll attract all the zombies toward you even a tank?" Nick asked glaring at him.

"Hey, guys? Could you throw down those gas cans that are up there with you? They're the last ones." Rochelle yelled out as the zombies started going at them again.

"Didn't see those here before." Ellis said as he picked up one and threw it down to them.

"You want to know why, overalls? It was because we were too fucking busy dealing with the zombies!" Nick told him grabbing another can and tossing it to Coach.

Francis picked up the last one and threw it to Zoey and at that precise moment two tanks showed up along with more zombies. Francis looked on in horror as the tanks ran towards them.

"I suggest we get done there now!" Nick said quickly tossing his pipe bomb and then ran down towards the car; Louis quickly following behind.

Ellis took out the molotov that he had and threw it at the tanks, but somehow it only got one of them and the other one was smart enough to not go through it.

"Aw, shit!" Ellis said and started to follow Nick and Louis, but was stopped as he was suddenly covered in vomit.

"Ellis!" Francis yelled and felt his heart start to beat loud in his chest as both tanks and zombies went after Ellis who couldn't see a thing as the tanks hit him hard sending him crashing to the side of a wall completely stuck in a corner since zombies and the tanks now had him pinned there.

Francis's eyes went wide as he heard Ellis's agonizing screams as he was getting overwhelmed by the infected. Nick turned with wide eyes and immediately started heading back up to the bleachers.

"Get that fucking van filled up now!" Nick screamed as he, Louis, and Coach went to try and help out Ellis leaving the girls to finish filling it up.

Francis saw the female boomer walk towards where Ellis was and without thinking he went up to it and shot it. Vomit flew everywhere especially on him and he immediately ran towards the infected and shot at the tanks and zombies. Finally getting their attention, they left Ellis alone and they all charged Francis who was starting to back up, but found that zombies had snuck up behind him so he had nowhere to run to. The tanks were immediately on him and they both hit him and since he was completely surrounded he couldn't be sent flying. Francis was barely aware of the fact that the others were trying to shoot the infected off of him. The tank that was on fire finally died, but the other one was still going strong and it kept pounding Francis to the ground as soon as he went down.

"FRANCIS!" Ellis screamed tears falling down his face as he limped closer and shot his whole clip into the tank's back.

Francis started to lose consciousness as his vision started to become blurry. The tank finally died and he could barely see as Zoey tossed out the last pipe bomb.

"Aw, shit. He ain't looking too good." Coach said looking at Francis sadly and then looked at Ellis.

Louis was in shock and couldn't seem to find his voice as he looked down at his dying teammate.

"Guys, the van's already filled up lets get going!" Zoey cried out to them.

For once, Nick looked at Ellis feeling really worried. He went up to him and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Ellis…"

Ellis shook his head and got on his hands and knees next to Francis who was coughing up blood and his eyes were starting to glaze over. Tears fell from Ellis's face as he looked down at Francis. Francis forced a grin on his face.

"You really should see the look on your face kid." Francis whispered and winced from being in too much pain.

"Don't worry, Francis. We're gunna get you outta here and we'll fix you and you'll be as good as new." Ellis told him trying to keep himself believing that Francis wasn't dying in front of his eyes.

Francis shook his head and coughed up more blood.

"I don't think that's going to happen, Ellis." Francis told him.

Zoey and Rochelle walked up towards them to see what was taking them and Zoey gasped when she saw Francis and tears immediately started to form in her eyes. Ellis's lips started to quiver and he started shaking knowing full well that Francis really was dying.

"Please…please don't…" Ellis trembled.

Zoey started crying and Louis held her against him with his eyes tightly shut. Rochelle bit her lip looking at the both of them sadly, Coach was praying and Nick kept looking at them worried what Ellis might do if Francis did die.

'What am I saying? He is dying.' Nick thought as he clenched his fists as he was forced to watch as Ellis slowly started falling apart.

That was one thing Nick never saw Ellis do and that was cry and right now he was breaking down right in front of him. Blood was pooling all around Francis and Ellis started to sob.

"Why did you do that?" Ellis asked.

Francis looked up at him and gave another forced grin.

"How could I not? I should have told you sooner and I shouldn't have lied to you before, but…." Francis winced. He took a deep breath in and let it out, "You were right, Ellis. I was the guy who saved you seventeen years ago in that burning building. Heh even back then I always thought you were cute. The way you clung to me when I picked you up and when you tried to look for me once I left…" Francis smiled.

Ellis's eyes went wide and felt himself turn slightly red.

"Oh, so that's how you knew him." Louis said finally reopening his eyes and looking at him.

"He knew him since he was very little." Rochelle replied sadly.

Nick felt himself get jealous of how close Francis and Ellis could have been.

"I need to tell you that I'm sorry that I just left like that, but I didn't want you to get involved with me because I knew that you deserved and needed someone better. That was one of the reasons why I didn't want you to know. Another was because of this happening and you being hurt about it, but it's too late now." Francis said quietly as he started to have a hard time breathing.

"Francis?!" Ellis asked eyes going wide.

Francis chuckled slightly and looked at him.

"I've been keeping an eye on you ever since then except for the past few months when I lost sight of you because of this stupid zombie apocalypse, but I am glad it at least brought me back to you again." Francis slowly reached his right hand to Ellis's face and touched his cheek.

"Y'all we better get going now remember the zombies?" Coach said as he saw them start to rush at them again (the pipe bomb was thrown so far the zombies couldn't remember where the survivors were at till just now).

Ellis looked up at him in horror.

"We can't, Coach! What about Francis?!" Ellis asked.

"You have to leave me here." Francis told him his vision starting to darken even more.

"NO!" Ellis screamed putting his whole body on top of him and hugged him.

"Ellis, I'm sorry, but we have to go." Coach told him as he threw his molotov at the oncoming zombies.

"I'M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT FRANCIS!" Ellis screamed louder.

Louis quickly led the girls to the van and Nick was trying to get Ellis to go with him, but he refused to let go of Francis who for some reason stopped talking.

"Francis?" Ellis asked looking at him and saw that Francis's eyes were closed and saw that he was no longer breathing, "FRANCIS!"

Ellis's scream filled the air.

Author's note: this was a hard chapter to write, but hey good news is if you miss Bill I think you'll like the next chapter. There's only one maybe two chapters left depending on like I said before how my chapters end, three at most. I might end up making another story and if I do im struggling if I should do NickxEllis or another FrancisxEllis they're both just too cute! But if I don't then it was nice writing stories for you guys to read. If I do make a new one when that ones finished if at all I will post a poll on my profile and you guys can vote on what story you liked best if you read all of them. Bill and Francis I'm sorry that I killed you guys I really am especially since I really liked you and your group so I'm terribly sorry for picking on you guys. If I killed Nick or Ellis I know I'd be crying for the rest of the night if I ever write a chapter like that. Its funny how easily I can cry over a characters death when its just a story. Video game I know I would be, but I guess reading it would have the same effect on me anyway lol. I cant bear to see Nick or Ellis die. If they get killed in the game I would be forever depressed not kidding T_T Francis too actually and Coach uh….everybody? wait that's not how I felt before! Oh well I guess I like Rochelle and Coach now for whatever reasons. I'll update again Sunday night very early Monday morning like 1 am if I don't feel lazy.


	11. Thunderstruck

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

Francis groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He was still on the ground and Ellis was clinging to him refusing to move.

"Kid, what are you…?" Francis asked.

Ellis didn't look at him and didn't even notice when Francis had started talking. Francis frowned slightly worried as he saw Ellis shaking and sobbing.

"Ellis, what's wrong?" Francis waited for Ellis to respond, but he still didn't answer or look at him, "Why are you ignoring me?"

"He's not ignoring you, Francis. It's because he can't see you now stand up already."

Francis's eyes went wide as he turned his head to the side and saw that Bill was there standing next to him looking completely annoyed as he smoked his cigarette and let out a puff of smoke. Francis immediately stood up and saw exactly why Ellis wasn't responding to him.

"Oh…" Francis said watching as Nick tried to pull Ellis off of his body.

"How can you forget that you just died, Francis?" Bill snorted shaking his head as he looked at him.

"Hey, I honestly thought I was ok for a second there alright, Bill? I just wasn't expecting to still be here. Speaking of which why are you still here, old man? Shouldn't you be up there by now?" Francis asked pointing at the sky.

Bill sighed.

"Why do I have to explain what's going on to you? It's obvious, Francis why we're still here." Bill said.

"Well for one, Bill it's because you're the only one who can see me right now and two, well you're good at explaining things so just tell me already." Francis replied looking at him.

"We're still here, Francis because we're still worried about everyone else and we refuse to leave until we know that they'll be safe." Bill told him.

Francis turned his head to look at Ellis who had now been grabbed by both Louis and Nick and were wrestling with him to try and get him to the van. Ellis was screaming completely ignoring the fact that the zombies were about to be on them again. Francis also watched in surprise as Coach picked him up and carried him to the van.

"What is Coach doing?" Francis asked.

"It was the only way that they could get the kid to get in the van." Bill sighed, "at least they care about you enough to take your body with them."

Francis looked at him.

"Bill, I'm sorry we would have gone back out there, but there was too many infected at the time even after the witches took off." Francis said looking guilty.

"Francis, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Those witches tore me to shreds and I seriously doubt any of you would have wanted to bring my body back in pieces let alone even look at what they did to me." Bill said.

Francis winced not even wanting to think about what the witches did to Bill.

"Well, now that we got that cleared up WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING, FRANCIS?!" Bill smacked him on the head.

"What the hell, old man?!" Francis said glaring at him as he rubbed his head.

Bill shook his head and glared back at Francis.

"I knew this was going to happen, but Francis seriously what you did was completely stupid!" Bill told him.

"How was saving Ellis stupid, Bill?! I was making sure that he didn't get killed!" Francis yelled at him.

Bill snorted.

"Did it ever cross your mind to pick up a molotov or perhaps look around for another pipe bomb?" Bill said pointing at a stray pipe bomb next to the stage that hadn't been with the other ones and then at the last molotov that was still on the table, "Maybe if you had, the tanks and zombies wouldn't have been on the kid the way they were and you wouldn't have done something so stupid as to stand next to a boomer and kill it and then charge at the infected!"

Francis rubbed his head feeling completely embarrassed.

"So, uh, you were watching?"

"The whole goddamn time!" Bill said, "In fact you said 'Bill's watching over us' to Zoey."

"It was just to comfort her. I didn't actually think you really were, old man." Francis replied.

"You honestly thought I would just up and leave without making sure you guys were going to be ok?!" Bill replied angrily.

"Well, uh, I assumed that once you…you know I thought that meant you crossed over already."

"What are you disappointed that I'm still here watching over your sorry ass, Francis?" Bill asked.

"That's not what I meant, Bill." Francis replied sighing.

Both of them heard as the others started driving away and saw as a tank tried running towards them to stop them, but as soon as they were out of reach it promptly died.

"Well, at least they got out ok." Francis said watching the van until it vanished from sight.

"We might as well follow them. We still need to figure out how to get you back in your body." Bill told them.

Francis raised an eyebrow looking turning back to look at him.

"What are you talking about?" Francis asked.

"I'm not letting you leave Zoey and Louis to fend for themselves and you're definitely not leaving that poor kid alone now that you've finally told him the truth which I never would have guessed, but it makes sense now." Bill replied looking at him.

Francis shook his head.

"Bill, I don't think there's a way I can be revived. What's dead is dead."

"Don't be so sure, Francis. Besides if you were to stay dead I'm sure the kid will do something drastic like try to get himself killed." Bill said.

Francis looked at him in shock and horror.

"He wouldn't…"

"Didn't you see the look on his face? I'm positive that he'll do anything to see you again even if it means death." Bill said looking at him seriously.

Francis had turned pale and couldn't seem to find a response to what Bill said.

"So, do you agree with me now that you need to be back in your body?" Bill asked.

Francis nodded and swallowed.

"So, uh, how exactly is this gonna work?" Francis asked.

"Well, let's just hope they manage to find a defibrillator soon otherwise you're more then likely going to be stuck here with me." Bill told him.

Francis scowled.

"You made it sound like we could do something about it."

"We can, since we're ghosts or spirits or whatever all we need to do is somehow let them know that a defib is nearby by making it fall off a table or make some kind of noise to alert them to it." Bill said.

Francis raised an eyebrow.

"We can do that?" Francis asked.

Bill sighed and nodded.

"I've come across a couple of other people here and they told me that we can. It just takes practice. Ever wonder why sometimes something falls to the ground and you're not the one who pushed it?"

Francis thought and shook his head.

"No, because that's never happened to me."

"Whatever, Francis. Let's just go to where the others are at." Bill replied starting to get agitated.

They both disappeared and then reappeared inside the van.

"How did we do that?" Francis asked.

"Simple, we thought about coming here so we did." Bill replied.

Coach was the one driving the van, Louis was in the passenger seat and everyone else was in the back looking at one another with worried looks. Francis's body was lying against Ellis who once again had his arms wrapped around tightly around him. Francis looked at Ellis sadly who hid his face from the others by laying his head on Francis's shoulder.

"The kids taking your death pretty hard. It's obvious he's blaming himself for it." Bill said.

Francis didn't hear him as he watched Rochelle try to approach him.

"Ellis, honey, look at me please?" Rochelle asked looking at him sadly.

Ellis slowly shook his head not bothering to look up. Zoey couldn't even look at them as she sat in the corner crying. Rochelle glanced at Nick and nodded her heard toward Ellis hoping that maybe Nick could say something that might get Ellis to look at them. Nick moved to sit next to Ellis and looked at him worried.

"Ellis, I know that I haven't exactly been nice to you at all since we've met and I'm sorry that I've been treating you like I hated you," Nick swallowed never having been good at apologizing to people, "I just wanted to tell you that I hope you're not blaming yourself because it wasn't your fault. I don't want to have to see you do anything drastic because I don't think…," Nick looked away for a second before swallowing again and looking back at Ellis who still had his head laying on top of Francis's shoulder, "I don't think I can watch you tear yourself apart because of his…" Nick couldn't say the word.

Nick already knew that Ellis was blaming himself and it was killing him seeing Ellis like this; not being his usual optimistic self who was always talking and telling stories about Keith.

"Well then don't, Nick. I didn't ask for you to take care of me." Ellis responded still not looking up.

There was an awkward silence before Nick spoke again.

"Don't you get it, overalls?! I don't want to see or hear that you got yourself killed!" Nick told him as he grabbed a hold of Ellis's left arm.

"I don't care, Nick." Ellis said coldly.

Nick looked at him with wide eyes. Everyone stayed quiet after that.

"Kid…" Francis whispered.

"He's worse then I thought." Bill said looking at Ellis then at Francis.

The van was suddenly brought to a sudden stop making everyone look at Coach.

"Why are we stopping?" Rochelle asked.

"I see a few things inside that store. Might as well check it out for a few supplies." Coach said parking the van and then getting out.

"Guys wait right here. We'll be right back." Louis said and got out of the van and followed Coach inside the store., "So what did you see?"

"I saw some drinks at the back of the store. We might as well get some for the road." Coach replied.

Francis and Bill appeared in the store and looked around.

"Try not to take too long looking for a defibrillator, Francis." Bill said as he started looking.

"Yeah, yeah. Try not to take too long getting back to the van." Francis responded.

Bill turned and glared at him, but Francis didn't see it as he looked around the other side of the room for one.

'Well, this sucks. I don't even know what one looks like.' Francis thought to himself.

Francis managed to find a couple of pain pills and pipe bombs, but nothing that looked like that could revive someone.

"I found it!" Bill yelled from the other side of the room.

Francis immediately appeared next to him making Bill roll his eyes.

"Couldn't you just walk over here?" Bill asked.

Francis shrugged.

"I guess, but it would have taken too long."

"Francis, just help me make some kind of noise." Bill sighed.

"So how much do you think we should take?" Louis asked having gotten a twelve pack of coca-cola.

"I guess this will have to do for now." Coach replied holding up a twelve pack of mountain dew.

"I guess we should get back to the van." Louis said as they started making their way back to the others.

"You know, Louis if you and Zoey want to tag along with us its fine. We'd be more then happy to have you guys with us." Coach told him smiling slightly.

"Thanks, Coach. I think we might have to accept your offer since we lost both Bill and Francis." Louis closed his eyes for a second then opened them again.

Coach was about to say something when a loud noise was heard coming from their right.

"What was that?" Louis asked.

"I don't know, but I gotta tell you if it's a zombie the only thing I got to fight with right now is this pack of mountain dew." Coach said.

"I got your back. Let's go see what it was real quick. Something probably fell off a shelf or something." Louis told him and they both slowly approached the area.

"It was just a bunch of packs of cigarettes." Coach said sighing with relief.

"That was weird." Louis frowned and then saw something on the floor, "Coach? What is that?"

Coach looked at what Louis was looking at and a smile spread wide across his face.

"Well I'll be…it's a defibrillator!"

Author's note: the drinks (coca-cola and mountain dew) are what my dad, brother and I have at home every single day. My fave is coca-cola and my dad and brother's is mountain dew. They all needed something to drink for the road so I chose mine and my family's favorites. Let me guess when I killed off Francis you guys had absolutely no faith in me that I would bring him back lol. That's ok I don't blame you for not liking me for killing Francis, but hey it was all a part of the story and he'll be back alive sometime in the next chapter. The next chapter might possibly be the last one for the story but I'm not sure yet so you'll just have to wait and see. I hope you guys liked and enjoyed the story. Poor Bill you'll have to say goodbye to him for real next chapter as soon as Francis is revived.


	12. You Shook Me All Night Long

Love Will Keep Us Alive

By: esmtz

"You mean to tell me that we actually found something that can bring Francis back to life?" Louis asked completely surprised as Coach picked it up and put it on top of the twelve pack of mountain dew he was carrying.

"Yeah. Don't tell me you guys never came across one before." Coach said looking at him.

"Well, no. This is the first time that I've ever seen one." Louis replied looking at it, "We better hurry and revive Francis then. For our sake and of course the kids."

"Ellis will be happy to know that we found one. I hate seeing him all down and depressed like that. It just doesn't suit him. He's supposed to be all excited like and optimistic about whatever situation we might be in." Coach said and started making his way to the van.

Francis and Bill watched as Coach and Louis left the store and then looked at each other.

"I can't believe that worked." Francis said.

"You want to know why, Francis? It's because you didn't know what the hell you were doing and I had a basic idea of what to do so in other words I was the only one who pushed those cigars off the shelf and on to the floor." Bill snorted, "As always you're a complete moron."

Francis glared at him.

"I am not, Bill." Francis replied.

"Francis, for as long as I've known you, you've always been the type to just rush into battle and not think of what might happen. Even before you died it was apparent that you didn't have the slightest idea that you were going to get yourself killed." Bill said rolling his eyes.

"Actually, Bill. As soon as the kid was in trouble I kinda already knew what was going to happen." Francis told him, "I had to get the infected's attention so I killed the boomer as soon as I was close to it. It was the only way to get them off him since I knew shooting at them wouldn't have done any good and they would have killed him instead."

"Wow, Francis. I didn't realize that you actually had a brain." Bill said.

Francis sighed shaking his head.

"Whatever, old man. Let's just get back to the van already."

Bill and Francis disappeared and then reappeared back inside the van. Francis looked at Bill and then smirked.

"'Couldn't you just walk over here?'" Francis said imitating Bill.

"Shut up, Francis. Consider yourself lucky that you're about to be revived." Bill said glaring at him.

Francis grinned.

"Why? I'm not afraid of you."

"Oh really? Then you wouldn't mind if I hung around with you for the rest of eternity?"

Francis looked at him in horror.

"You wouldn't…"

"Oh I would, just to annoy the hell out of you." Bill chuckled as he saw the look on Francis's face, "By the way I think they're going to try and revive you now." Bill said and watched as the back door to the van was opened.

"Coach, what are you doing?" Rochelle asked as he motioned for them all to exit the van.

Francis and Bill watched as Nick, Rochelle, and Zoey got out of the van and Coach reached for Francis's body and started to pull him away from Ellis. Ellis's eyes went wide as he finally looked up and held on to him tighter.

"Ellis, look what Louis and I found." Coach said holding up the defibrillator.

Life came flooding back into Ellis's eyes as he immediately reached for it, but Coach pulled back.

"Get out of there first so I can lay him down." Coach told him.

Ellis immediately got out and started feeling anxious as he watched Coach gently lay Francis's body inside the van. He then handed the defibrillator to Ellis who quickly went back inside the van and put the chest paddles on Francis's chest.

"Well, the next time you die promise me that it won't be for a very long time." Bill said and when he didn't hear a response right away he frowned and looked around, "Francis?"

Everything had suddenly turned dark and Francis couldn't see anything.

"What the hell is this?" Francis asked looking around, "Uh, Bill? Are you still here?"

Suddenly he heard someone crying and as he turned around to see or at least hear where it was coming from something had grabbed his leg. Francis looked down and his eyes went wide when he saw that it was Ellis when he was six years old. Francis then looked at himself and noticed that he looked exactly like how he was when he was eighteen. In fact he was wearing the same clothes that he had wore when he saved Ellis from the burning building. He looked down at his arm and saw the very first permanent tattoo he got when he had turned eighteen. Francis looked back down at Ellis who was looking up at him tears falling down his face.

"I'm scared. Please don't leave me." Little Ellis cried clinging to him.

Francis rubbed the top of Ellis's head as he kneeled down and looked at him with a small smile on his face.

"What's wrong, kid? Need help finding your parents?" Francis asked playing along.

Little Ellis's eyes went wide as he started tugging on his pants. Francis frowned wondering why he was doing that.

"I'm scared. I don't want to be scared anymore. Please…stay with me."

Francis saw a small light start making its way towards him and for a second he thought that he was crossing over until he felt pain coming from his chest. He gasped as he opened his eyes and for a few seconds he couldn't see a thing because of the sudden amount of light he was seeing. He heard voices in the background as he struggled to sit up.

"Francis?" One of the voices asked.

Francis blinked and rubbed his eyes until his vision started to get clearer and he saw that Ellis was looking at him with wide eyes. His eyes were puffy and red from all the crying that he had done and Francis immediately knew what was going on.

'I'm alive…' Francis thought completely surprised, 'So that thing did work.'

Francis saw that behind Ellis everyone else was looking at him. Zoey had also been crying, but as soon as she saw him start to move and look at them she cried with relief.

"Francis!" Zoey yelled and was about to get back in the van to hug him, but Louis stopped her as he held her arm.

Louis looked at Francis and smiled.

"It's nice to see that you're alright, man. Thanks a lot, Coach." Louis said turning to face Coach.

"Hey, it was lucky that we found that defibrillator in that store." Coach replied grinning, "If it weren't for the fact that those packs of cigarettes fell to the floor I don't think we would have known that it was there."

Zoey smiled as a tear fell from her face.

"It was Bill. It had to of been. Who else would have alerted you guys to where it was at especially since it was near packs of cigarettes?" Zoey said.

Ellis was shaking again and Francis looked at him concern written all over his face.

"Kid?" Francis asked.

Ellis threw his arms around Francis and hugged him tightly. After a few seconds of not saying anything, Francis slowly put his arms around Ellis and hugged him back. Ellis swallowed.

"I-I didn't know what to do. You were g-gone and I just…" Ellis choked on a sob and hugged him tighter.

Francis closed his eyes and nodded.

"I know, Ellis. I know."

While Coach, Zoey, and Louis were talking Nick watched as Ellis and Francis were hugging. He sighed and looked away happy to know that Ellis was going to be ok, but didn't dare say that since he starting feeling that he said too much before already. Rochelle sighed and went up to Nick.

"Nick, I just wanted you to know that I'm not mad. I always knew even before we started this relationship that you cared a lot about Ellis, whether you admit it or not. It's my fault for assuming that you liked me more and it wasn't my place to try and change you to like someone who you obviously didn't like as much as Ellis. So if I were you if I wanted a shot at being with him I'd start treating him better." Rochelle told him.

Nick tensed as she said this, but didn't respond back as he knew that it would just lead to another argument and besides that Rochelle now had something to use against him if he started to argue again. Once Rochelle went towards Coach, Nick sighed and shook his head. Francis started rubbing Ellis's back to get him to calm down and as he did Ellis stopped shaking.

"Ellis, I saw how you were reacting to…well….you know and I just wanted to say that I never would have wanted you to get yourself killed." Francis told him pulling back from the hug to look at him.

Ellis sniffed.

"I know it's just…I honestly didn't know what to do when you….uh….stopped breathing. You told me that you were the one who saved my life before and I lost it when I knew that I couldn't save you like you did with me twice now and to be honest its a bit more complicated to how I feel about the whole thing." Ellis blushed rubbing his head and looked away.

Francis raised an eyebrow looking at him curiously.

"How complicated?" Francis asked.

"Well, uh, I guess you can say I like you." Ellis replied quietly.

"I like you too, kid." Francis grinned.

Ellis blushed harder.

"Nah not like that. I mean like, like."

It took a few seconds before Francis realized what Ellis meant and he too started turning red. Ellis noticed and immediately started feeling uncomfortable thinking that Francis was disturbed by it.

"Uh, maybe I should ask if I can sit in the passenger seat." Ellis said and started to get out of the van but was pulled back and felt himself being turned around.

Ellis's eyes went wide as Francis had pulled him into a kiss. Francis immediately put his arms back around Ellis and had his eyes closed. Ellis slowly closed his eyes and kissed back.

"Aw, ain't that cute." Coach grinned.

Ellis and Francis pulled back slightly and saw that the others were looking at them.

"Uh, you guys ready to hit the road now?" Ellis asked.

Nick sighed.

"We would be if you guys weren't taking up the whole space." Nick said.

Ellis looked around and saw that they were.

"Oh sorry y'all." Ellis said as he moved to sit next to Francis who had backed up so that the others could get in.

"Whatever, overalls." Nick replied as he sat on the other side of Ellis.

"Can you guys promise me something?" Rochelle asked.

"What?" Francis asked.

"No make-out sessions while we're all still in here." Rochelle told him.

Francis laughed.

"Don't worry this van is too small anyway and besides as soon as we get to the next safe house or whatever I'm getting us a room." Francis grinned looking at Ellis who blushed as he snuggled up against him.

Louis laughed.

"Oh great looks like no ones sleeping tonight!"

"Terrific." Nick mumbled.

"So, Francis are you going to come with us to New Orleans now?" Ellis asked looking up at him.

Francis smiled at him.

"I don't really have a choice now do I?" Francis responded making Ellis grin.

"Well, since he's going it looks like I'll be going with you guys too." Zoey said smiling.

"Count me in." Louis said from up front.

"One big happy family!" Coach grinned as he started the van again and started driving, "By the way the drinks are back there with y'all just so you know."

As Coach continued driving, Ellis looked up at Francis.

"Francis, can you promise me something?" Ellis asked.

"Sure what?" Francis asked looking at him.

"Don't do that again." Ellis told him.

"Hmm well I can't really promise you that, but I'll try." Francis replied.

"Fine I'll try too."

"Ellis, you're not going to die protecting me or anyone else here because I won't let you." Francis told him.

'Me either.' Nick thought.

"Ok, how is that fair? You're the only one who can do the protecting? I'm sorry to say that after what just happened I'm not letting you die for me again." Ellis replied.

"Hey I'm not letting you get killed."

"Forget it, overalls. If it comes down to it I will personally make sure that you don't do something stupid." Nick glanced at him for a second then looked away.

Ellis looked at Nick completely surprised that Nick cares at all.

Coach and Louis grinned.

"One big happy family alright." Zoey sighed and smiled slightly.

"Might as well get used to it." Rochelle told her.

As soon as night came around and they did manage to find a safe house no one was able to sleep at all because of the noise coming from Francis and Ellis's room. Nick was heard yelling 'goddammit!' from the room next to theirs.

THE END

Author's note: Finally this story is done. Now I can start thinking about ideas for either another l4d story or something else. I hope y'all liked this story. Again it might be awhile if I do post another l4d story. Anyway I'd like to thank all of the reviewers and anyone who story alerted or added my story to their favorites. It really got me to finish this one as well as anyone else who at least read it. Well I guess this means bye for now.

-esmtz aka Sarah


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